The treadmill, the steersman and the happiness

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As Thomas Jefferson stated in the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, we all have an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. So here I propose an exercise to help you with this search: stop for a minute and list the things you think will make you happy.

Done?

Typically, this list contains one or more of the following items: entering college; starting a relationship with a nice person; getting a good job; taking a nice trip; buying a car.

Ok, it sounds a good plan!

Now let’s suppose you achieved these goals. Wow!! Now you are happy, right? Right. But for how long? It seems that the list you’ve just made of what you need to be happy has just changed…

After entering college, your goal is to graduate.

Once you are in a nice relationship, you want to get married.

Once you get a good job, you seek a promotion.

After taking a trip, you are already thinking about the next one.

After buying a car, you crave a better model or an apartment.

Thus, it seems that we spend our lives on a treadmill, like those in a gym, as if we run, run and get nowhere. This illustrative concept is called the “hedonic treadmill” (1) because hedonism is related to the achievement of happiness through instant pleasure.

The endless search for new accomplishments occurs because we all have a “baseline level of happiness” to which we tend to return after some variation in the normal conditions of our life. This baseline is called Set Point or Set Range and is related to a genetic component. Studies with identical and fraternal twins that were separated in their childhood show that identical tend to have a closer level of happiness even in different life circumstances than fraternal twins (2). In fact, there is a happiness gene!

It is like we had a steersman inside us that directs the course of our emotional life. We inherit this steersman, which brings us to a specific level of happiness. Each of us has our own level, which we invariably return to, as if it were a “happiness thermostat,” just like the one in air conditioners (1). In other words, happiness would be a personality trait, such as being optimistic or pessimistic.

The good news is that if the steersman works for negative situations as well. In the second episode of her Podcast “The Happiness Lab”, Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of Yale’s most popular course (“Psychology and the Good Life”), brings the testimony of a guy who was sent to Iraq war at age 19. After his vehicle had been attacked, he had 34% of his body burned and spent 3 years in a hospital. Today, about 15 years later, he describes this episode as a “blessing,” as he thinks that all he has accomplished since then is a result of this experience.

Certainly, there are limits to this adaptation. In extreme cases, like the death of a child, which is considered the worst situation anyone can go through in life, people never really recover. Still, sometime later, when parents are asked about the positive and negative consequences of this event, surprisingly they mention more positives than negatives things.

Then is that it? Isn’t there anything we can do to be happier?

Here comes another good news: according to scientific research on the topic, the genetic influence on our happiness level is about 50% of the total. That’s a lot, of course, but it’s not everything. The other 50% of the influence refers to the circumstances in which we live (about 10%) and voluntary factors that are under our control (about 40%) (3).

H = S + C + V

where: S = Set range (50%); C = Circunstances (10%); and V = Voluntary control factors (40%)

Circumstances (C) refer to contexts that cannot be changed (such as age and gender) or change is very difficult (such as place of residence and level of education). However, the participation of voluntary factors or intentional activities (V) means that our emotional state and personality can be improved with some effort.

So, next time you get upset with the company you work because it doesn’t give you the conditions to be happy at work (or with traffic, or with weather, or economic crisis), remember that these circumstances only account for 10% of your happiness, but that your attitudes and choices have a 40% impact.

And if you think 40% is too much or too little in the total share of your happiness, that probably says a lot about your Set Point!

References, in case you want to know more about this topic:

(1) Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Simon and Schuster.

(2) Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon. American Psychological Science, 7(3), 186–189. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9280.1996.tb00355.x

(3) Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). The how of happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. New York, NY, US: Penguin Press.