Are you satisfied?

Are you satisfied?

Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow , gave a simple yet profound explanation of the difference between happiness and life satisfaction :

‘’Happiness is being happy in your life. We experience it immediately and in the moment.

Life satisfaction is being happy about your life. It is the happiness that exists when we talk about the past and the big picture.’’

Life satisfaction is the way in which people show their emotions, feelings and how they feel about their directions and options for the future.¹

Life satisfaction is our general feeling about our life and how pleased we are with how it’s going. There are many factors that contribute to life satisfaction, including work, romantic relationships, relationships with family and friends, personal development, health and wellness, and others.

Humans are subjective creatures always evaluating their life situation and where they are heading. It would seem that we gain no satisfaction until we reach certain life goals. Perhaps, it can be said that the final aspiration of every human being is to attain the goals & desires and the attainment thereof leads to life-satisfaction.²

Well-being and life satisfaction researcher Ed Diener defined life satisfaction as:

“[A]n overall assessment of feelings and attitudes about one’s life at a particular point in time ranging from negative to positive” (Buetell, 2006)³.

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology researches have distinguished three main routes to happiness: positive feelings, active engagement in life, and having a sense of purpose or meaning outside oneself. Researchers noted that people who experience the greatest satisfaction in life pursue all three routes — and especially the last two: active engagement and greater purpose.⁴ Below is a brief overview on all 3:

Positive feelings

Many studies have shown that positive emotions are frequently accompanied by fortunate circumstances (e.g., longer life, health, large social networks, etc)⁵. Mindfulness is one key to increasing positive feelings and enjoying the present, according to Harvard psychologist Ellen J. Langer, Ph.D., who spoke at the Fifth International Summit on Positive Psychology in September 2005.⁶

Active engagement in life & knowing your strengths

To increase your engagement in life, you first need to identify your signature strengths.

Positive psychology holds the belief that people become more engaged in activities that call on their inherent strengths⁷. Everyone’s strengths are different, so positive psychology helps people identify and draw on their most prominent ones, or their “signature” strengths^7. You can identify your signature strengths here (using the free link from VIA)

Seeking meaning

Positive psychology’s third route to happiness entails applying your strengths to something outside yourself to create meaning in life, whether that involves nature, art, community, spirituality, love, serving others …etc

How can you add meaning to your life?

According to Drageset, Haugan, and Tranvåg (2017)⁸, there are four main experiences that encourage meaning and purpose in life: 

The above 4 experiences are self-explanatory , and influence our sense of purpose and wellbeing when engaged in actively and mindfully in such activities…

But why are we still not satisfied?

Research believes the reason for this has a lot do with how our brains operates and how we view our lives. Humans possess something called the optimistic bias, which is the tendency to think that our future will be better than our present⁹.

The other reason is ‘Hedonic adaptation’

The hedonic treadmill is the idea that an individual’s level of happiness, after rising or falling in response to positive or negative life events, ultimately tends to move back toward where it was prior to these experiences.¹⁰

An example of this is when People who win the lottery tend to return to roughly their original levels of happiness after the novelty of the win has worn off. (Some even end up less happy because of changes in relationships that can occur.)

If you’re someone who is naturally happy, focusing on the positive can help you to feel happier than you would. If you’re someone who’s naturally less happy or who faces a lot of challenges, give extra attention to minimizing hedonic adaptation , as it can help you to live a more fulfilling life.

Some ways to overcome ‘Hedonic Adaptation’ :

Happiness in the Present

Dr Martin Seligman (Martin Seligman is a pioneer of Positive Psychology ) recommends savouring experiences and using mindfulness as ways to increase happiness in the present.¹¹

So what will make us satisfied in Life?

In most cases , what we assume will make us happy most often will not make us happy, and we believe that we will only be happy in the future ….  rather take time to savour and enjoy the journey in your life as well as the accomplishment- if not only the end goals itself , but the smaller achievements and even the simplest joys in life 🙂

I hope that you take the time:

Need some help with any of the above?

Are you ready to start the journey with me as your professional and personal coach then Click here to book a 15min session and let’s get planning!

Remember that the beginning is the most important work and to enjoy the journey!

All my love

Tam

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