– By Birgitte Coste, an article in the ‘Consciousness Boosters‘ series.
Did you know … that there is a scientifically based recipe for how to make yourself happy?
A qualitative study of happy people shows that when you consistently make some very specific inner choices (nine choices, to be exact), your life experience significantly improves. You will experience genuine, lasting joy and will be less affected by life’s inevitable small and big bumps.
Now, you’re probably eager to know which choices these happy people are making. I know I would be. But before I present you with these choices, let me briefly outline how these important insights were made.
Two Businessmen Are Wondering About ‘Mysterious’ Always-Happy People
– How the Study of Happy People Began
In the mid-1990s, Rick Foster and Greg Hicks were traveling consultants in corporate management.
On their many trips in and out of companies, they noticed two particular things:
- There were a lot of people who were stressed … including themselves.
- There were a few ‘mysterious’ beings here and there who, despite being in the same work environment with the same problems as everyone else, didn’t seem to be affected by it. These people, regardless of circumstances, appeared to be proactive, warm, and most of all, happy and joyful. “Extremely happy”, as Rick and Foster write in their book How We Choose to Be Happy. The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People – Their Secrets, Their Stories (3rd edition 2004 (1st edition 1999), Penguin Group, p. 6).
These exceptionally happy people sparked Rick’s and Greg’s curiosity, leading them to ask questions like, ‘What are they doing that the rest of us aren’t?’, ‘How do they stay happy and positive?’, ‘What could throw them off balance?’, and so on.
Determined to uncover the secret behind these people’s joy, Rick and Greg embarked on a major project. Over the next three years, they conducted qualitative interviews (long, in-depth interviews that resemble conversations) with genuinely happy people – truly joyful individuals.
Rick and Greg ended up visiting more than 300 people, aged 16-101, across all 50 U.S. states, the seven continents, and over 40 countries (ibid. p. 9, as well as Rick and Greg’s own website).
Their approach to finding their ‘research subjects’ (the happy people) was somewhat unique and ad-hoc. They simply traveled from town to town, asking the locals, “Who is the happiest person around here?”
They would then be given a name, and they would contact the person, inviting themselves over for a visit. Not once were they turned down, and not once were the interviewees unsure about the type of joy and happiness Rick and Greg wanted to discuss with them (ibid. p. 7).
What Is Happiness According to Happy People?
In summary, Rick and Greg define the happiness of “extremely happy people” as follows:
“What we heard was that true happiness is a profound, enduring feeling of contentment, capability, and centeredness – the 3 Cs. It’s a rich sense of wellbeing that comes from knowing you can deal productively and creative with all that life offers – both the good and the bad. It’s knowing your internal self and responding to your real needs, rather than the demand of others. And it’s a deep sense of engagement – living in the moment and enjoying life’s bounty. This complex feeling is the direct result of the nine choices, all working together in a synergistic system. (ibid. p. 6).
Rick and Greg also discovered that their interviewees, in describing happiness and joy, made a clear distinction between spontaneous feelings of joy and pleasure, and the more lasting, deep feeling of true happiness.
How to Make Yourself Happy!
– The Nine Conscious Inner Choices that Extremely Happy People Make
In their search for the inner happiness formula, Rick and Greg found that there were certain things all of these happy people did. They made conscious choices! Over and over again.
All of these happy people (regardless of personal background, nationality, religious belief, economic status, job type, race, age, etc.) had created happiness by making the same nine conscious choices!
The Nine Inner Choices for a Happy Life
“1. INTENTION – the active desire and commitment to be happy, and the decision to consciously choose attitudes and behaviors that lead to happiness over unhappiness.
2. ACCOUNTABILITY – the choice to create the life you want to live, to assume personal responsibility for your actions, thoughts and feelings, and the empathic refusal to blame others or view yourself as a victim.
3. IDENTIFICATION – the ongoing process of looking deep within yourself to assess what makes you uniquely happy, apart from what you’re told by other should make you happy.
4. CENTRALITY – the non-negotiable insistence on making central to your life that which brings you happiness.
5. RECASTING – the two-step process that transforms stressful problems and trauma into something meaningful, important and a source of emotional energy.
6. OPTIONS – the decision to approach life by creating multiple scenarios, to be open to new possibilities, and to adopt a flexible approach to life’s journey.
7. APPRECIATION – the choice to appreciate deeply your life and the people in it and to “stay in the present” by turning each experience into something precious.
8. GIVING – the choice to share yourself with friends and community, and to give to the world at large without the expectation of a “return”.
9. TRUTHFULNESS – the choice to be honest with yourself and others, and not allow societal, workplace, or family demands to violate your internal contract.” (Ibid. p. 10, own highlighting).
Rick and Greg see each of these nine life choices as important in themselves, but when they work together, they create a kind of synergistic system where the result far exceeds the individual parts. This synergy, they say, is what creates deep and lasting joy (ibid. p. 11).
They have illustrated the synergy and connections in a model (a circle), where choice #1 ‘intention’ is the only one placed in the center of the circle. All the other choices are positioned around the circle, surrounding ‘intention’.
The idea is that you start with ‘intention’, and from there, jump out onto the circle to choice #2 ‘responsibility’, then to choice #3 ‘identification’, and so on.
When you reach the final choice, ‘truthfulness’ (and have completed the circle), you move back to #2 ‘responsibility’ and begin the cycle again (ibid.).
Rick Foster’s and Greg Hicks’ Study on Happy People Gained Significant International Attention
This model with the nine conscious life choices sparked excitement worldwide and has since been used in hospitals, large companies, universities, and churches.
Highly respected research institutions such as the Mayo Clinic, NYU Hospital, and Wake Forest University Medical Center consider it groundbreaking research on how people create happiness and how it connects with health.
Several doctors told Greg and Rick that the patients who recovered best and fastest from illness, surgery, and similar situations seemed to be making choices very similar to these (ibid. p. 1).
This is a very interesting detail, as the study thus indirectly challenges the very mechanical view of our body that dominates the medical world: that our body runs its own course, and that the best medicine is pills.
This is not to say that medication can’t help in an acute situation, but as the study is scientifically based, it has created ‘acceptable evidence’ for other more holistic approaches to health and well-being.
What Is Happiness … and Where Does It Come From?
Many people have philosophized and written about what it takes to experience happiness. Naturally, there are a lot of different opinions, but most agree that happiness starts with yourself:
Happiness Is Something You Create Yourself
Being happy is not about luck or chance. It’s largely about will, choice, intention, and responsibility. You make a decision to want a certain life experience – and every time you do, you pursue it … always.
Joy and Happiness Come From Within
Happiness is not something you find out in the world or can buy with money. Happiness comes from within and is 100% dependent on ourselves – on our life choices, our consciousness.
Wise people have said something similar since the dawn of time. Here are some wise, famous quotes about happiness from some of the sharpest thinkers throughout history. (They may not look particularly happy in the pictures below, but their insights are certainly spot-on 😉 ):
“Happiness depends on ourselves”
– Aristotle (Greek philosopher and polymath / renaissance person (a person with knowledge in many fields), 384-322 BC, his philosophy has had a significant influence on later thoughts and concepts).
“To live happily is an inward power of the soul.”
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
– Marcus Aurelius (Roman emperor and philosopher, 121-180 AD, regarded as the last ‘good’ Roman emperor and referred to as “the philosopher on the emperor’s throne”).
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
– Abraham Lincoln (American president, 1809-1865, considered one of the greatest American presidents. He led, among other things, the emancipation of slaves toward the end of the American Civil War.).
“If you want to be happy, be.”
– Leo Tolstoy (Russian author and political thinker, 1828-1910, nominated multiple times for both the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize).
Happiness is yours … always – and comes from you … always!
That’s worth knowing!
What Do You Want to Read Now?
 Go to the ‘mother’ page of Consciousness Boosters: Consciousness Boosters – Positive News, Important Messages and Other Good Things to Know. |
Other Pages Related to This Topic
How to Improve Your Immune System by Embracing Positive Emotions and Just Feeling Good. |
Go to the ‘overview’ page, Collections
Read this page in Danish 🇩🇰
Go to the homepage