How to increase our level of happiness

Cristina Vâjâean
Research Specialist @ Azimut Happy Employees

OTHERS

Who wouldn't like to have:

Increased work performance;,
Stronger interpersonal relations;
Fewer negative psychological emotions;
A higher level of prosocial behaviors?

All of the above is associated with an increased level of happiness. But how can we develop our level of happiness on the long run? We would like to share with you some suggestions taken from the dedicated literature.

Did you know...

The level of happiness is influenced by:

Genetic factors- 50%
The activities we undertake- 40%
Events in our lives-10%

While we have no control over some aspects, we have total control over the activities that we choose to undertake.

What can we do?

Even though the domain literature, which we will shortly present, can come up with useful scientific advice, it is up to us to:

Remain constant and try to apply these exercises every time we have the opportunity, for a longer period of time;
Stay away from monotony when choosing, and diversifying the activities we choose
Understand their relevance and purpose, so that we can remain motivated when applying them
Choosing the right activities for us

How can we do this?

By expressing our positive emotions every chance we get;
Living in the present and enjoying every happy moment when it occurs;
Did we get some good news? Are we celebrating success? Let's share it with our friends and colleagues!
Imagine what our best possible selves would look like - do we know what our goals are, what motivates us or how we would see ourselves in the our best case scenario?

We recommend making a list to answer all of the above questions. This will help us arrange our goals and better understand the steps we need to take in order to get there.

Ex: I want to be a successful QA

Clearly define what successful means.

Imagine that you have achieved this goal, how does that make you feel?

Clearly define what your action steps are:

1. .............

2. .............

Be grateful! This can help you better appreciate the happy moments and learn from the less pleasant experiences.
Rely on your strong points -it is important to identify them and start getting involved in activities which capitalize on them. Moreover, this can help select the specific qualities we want to develop.

Even if things won't always go our way, the activities we choose to undertake will have the most impact on our happiness. So, we can improve the quality of our personal and professional life and start enjoying: