What Is Happiness to You? — Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
The secret to happiness is finally revealed. I listened to a TED Talk by Dominic Price. When he asked what’s your happiness score, I know I have to work harder and find my meaning of happiness.
Today happens to be the day before, I know I will be sad, as tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and it will be the first without my MOM.
Losing MOM this year is difficult. Even my words can’t escape the feeling of sadness, and yet, it is easier for me to foretell when I would be sad than know when I will be happy.
I woke up today and asked myself,
What is happiness to you?
For a straightforward question, I don’t have an answer.
I paused while drinking my morning coffee, and right away, I said to myself, coffee makes me happy.
And that lead to another thing, like the song I played on Spotify made me happy, the clouds that I see whenever I open my door, and the list of what makes me happy is relatively easy to fill, once I task myself to find the things to be grateful for when I start my day.
But what makes me happy is different from what happiness is.
After listening to my daily morning song on Spotify, I saw a new episode on TED Talk when I looked up at the screen. The podcast’s title just blew my mind as it is precisely what is on my mind … happiness.
The title of the podcast is, What’s your happiness score by Dominic Price.
Key Points I learned from Dominic Price’s — What’s your happiness score?
If you can spare 16 minutes of your time today, go on and listen to his talk. It is insightful and will keep you wondering what your future holds in terms of finding your happiness.
The biggest regret of dying people — Staying too long at the office.
A third of our time is spent working, and if that doesn’t give you any form of happiness, then it is time to evaluate the amount of time you spend at work.
For the longest time, we and society measure success by economic growth and productivity.
How little do we care for our planet when the fact is there is no Planet B.
Dominic Price becomes personal in his talk, as he shared her sister’s death, how he questioned his own purpose, as he, like many of us, lost our sense of purpose as we navigated through what he calls the pandemic the Ice Age.
In a study he shared, 1/3 of the 5,000 respondents say their biggest complaint during the pandemic is the lack of life-work balance.
A third of the respondents say they don’t have the time for the things they deem necessary to pursue personal happiness. The very things people wanted to do that will make them feel happy. They still weren’t able to do it for lack of time, at a time when most of us are at home.
Isn’t that ironic.
I know that feeling. It was just too hard to navigate through the last 15 months. Even I experienced my mother’s death. And to this day, I would find myself not only missing her but also missing my own meaning, if at all do I still find life to be worth living?
Personal Moral Inventory
Dominic Price mentioned the Quadruple Bottom line and the self-assessment test used by the elite military servicemen before they go into battle as tools that helped him design the 4Ps, which can be the secret to happiness.
He outlined these 4(Ps) as the secret to happiness.
- Productivity and Profit
- People
- Planet
- Purpose
And to use these 4Ps to determine if you are happy or not. Dominic Price uses these three scores to decide what he calls the happiness score. You can only rank each P with:
- Zero (0) — Neutral. It means you are OK but not great, meaning you are getting by.
- Positive One (+1) — It means you are nailing it. You are awesome.
- Negative One (-1) — It means you are not doing well.
Most of us will think we have to add up the scores, but as Dominic said, each score on one of them (Ps) doesn’t mitigate the other score on the other (Ps).
This is where we got it wrong. We see each part of our lives as separate entities that we overcompensate on the other parts of our lives that we see ourselves doing well.
For most people, it is work, only to see themselves failing in other areas like their personal relationships.
Using the scorecard, this is how I would rank myself today:
- Productivity and Profit — (-1) As I don’t have a regular income yet.
- People — (0) After MOM died, I feel I have given less to the people I care for. But my experience as MOM’s caregiver is proof that I always have empathy for people.
- Planet — (+1) I do care for the planet and the environment. I didn’t travel because of the restrictions. I also don’t own a car.
- Purpose — (-1) I consider myself in limbo after MOM died. To be candid, there are days when I can’t find my purpose or that I don’t have the energy to be in that frame of mind to be in pursuit of my happiness.
Knowing now, based on my scores. I have a long way to go, and I need to work hard to achieve happiness today.
Do the test and find your happiness score?
We all want to be happy. And, now that we know our scores, we can choose to work on the areas where we score (0) and (-1).
The opportunity to be happy never ends. We can’t keep on looking back at the past or fast-forward to the future.
While the best time to plant a tree, as they say, is 20 years ago, the next best time is today.
Everything does start with you.
For us to be able to save others, we need to save ourselves first. That is why we need to put our “oxygen mask” first to breathe so that when we are strong, we can be there for others.
Finding our purpose doesn’t mean we become the savior of the world, to wear a cape, and be a hero.
Our purpose could also be for ourselves and our family, but it has to be clear, as, in our purpose, we find our meaning.
What matters is that we have the golden moment to find happiness as long as we are alive.
Our future is not written yet. We all have to power to have a say in what our future holds.
If you ask me now, What is happiness?
It is to continue growing as a person. That life does present moments of happiness, and when those moments happen, that I am present. And I can fully enjoy what happiness brings.
You may have a different meaning of happiness and would love to hear about it through your comments.
