Are you as happy as you will ever be?

Have you ever wondered how much of your emotional wellbeing is in your control?

You might have people in your life who have a naturally sunny and happy disposition.

For me, my 94 year old father in law Jim comes straight to mind.

He lives in a nursing home, with a lovely view of the ocean.

He’s very active, working on reception answering phone calls and representing residents at meetings.

When we Facetime him and ask how his day was, he always replies ‘it was terrific’.

I hope you have someone like that in your life too.

Then there are people who tend to see life from a negative standpoint, no matter what good things might be happening for them.

I wrote about the science of happiness in one of my books “Roadtesting Happiness”.

This book came into my mind and heart, after my beautiful mother died, just in her early 60s.

In the book, my goal was to see whether the advice of happiness experts actually worked, when I needed it most.

And in today’s post, I’ll share some of what I found.

Research studies on twins investigated how much happiness is actually within our control.

They found your environment has just as much impact on your emotional wellbeing as your genetics.

Have you heard of your happiness ‘set point’?

This is the concept that you are pre-determined to have a certain disposition, a kind of barometer of mood that you naturally revert back to.

Studies show after a major life event (good or bad), you tend to return to your happiness set point.

One researcher found people bounced back to their happiness set point after a serious illness or accident or even after a positive event like winning the lottery.

In fact, they found after 6 months, most people come back to the level of happiness they had before the event.

So if that’s the case, is it even worth trying to make yourself happier?

One of the world’s leading happiness researchers Sonja Lybormirsky from the University of California says definitely yes.

She ran one of the largest studies looking at interventions to raise people’s happiness set points.

“In broad terms, my research suggests sustained happiness is obtainable if you are prepared to do the work,” she says.

So what determines your own happiness set point?

Imagine your happiness level is like a round pie.

Half the pie for your life satisfaction comes from your genes.

A further 10 per cent comes from whatever life throws at you.

That means there’s 40 % of your happiness within your control.

It’s this 40% that you can boost by adopting some of the practices I write about here, and coach people on.

There are scientifically proven habits and interventions to make you happier.

As Professor Lyubomirsky says, if you want to be happier, it takes commitment.

“If you want greater happiness, you need to invest time and effort into your emotional life,” she says.

“Pursuing happiness takes work but it may be the most rewarding work we ever do.”

How do you find your own happiness?