The Happiness Formula

The issue I have is I am a through and through scientist. So like everything I approach in life, this happiness project also has to be approached in a scientific and logical method.  So what is happiness? Good question, and I know who will know; google.

So I google in the word "happiness" and I get all sorts that I will share with you.

The quotes
There is a whole bunch of quotes here they are
 

 

 

Ok, so these are three quotes I have selected for you to muse at. Really, happiness for a month is marriage, that was obviously written by a saddo single person, and so that totally discredited the first quote. Moving on.  Happiness is perfume?  Wait a minute is it NORMAL to pour perfume on people? Really, have a missed out on some obscure past time. So that quote I had to ignore. Then comes the final quote. Happiness sneaks into a door. I am sorry, but that won't do it for a scientist thinker like myself, I can't have haphazard happiness, I needed something tangible scientific and measurable.

So the quotes aren't doing it for me. Time to revisit the whole happiness defenition.

The Formula
Need something more scientific so started to look for a formula.  Here is what I found:

 
In its simplest form, happiness is the reality minus expectations, and if your expectations exceed reality, then you are in negative happiness - or in otherwords miserable. Truth to that. But how do you measure expectations. Do I even know what my expectations are? And I can't really measure this, I needed something that encompassed everything in my life:

 
Ok, I can feel the scientists getting excited here, but really this calculation does not make any sense either. Amount of Rain??  Alcohol consumption (and they can't even spell consumption). And so equation totally discredited.


Ok, this is getting harder than initially thought, and I can't seem to find anything that I can comprehend as to what is it I need to do to be happier.  The abstract quotations are all totally that... abstract. And the scientific approach which would have been brill, turns out what written by a bunch of morons.

So here it is, I am going to have my own definition and measure of happiness. And the only way I can measure my happiness is via this blog. I can record and publicly publish my joys and woes and see if the things I am implementing in my life really are making me happier.  And so that comes to my first realisation of happiness - Be Me.

Sounds simple, but really it requires a lot of self reflection. I don't do poetry and quotes, I don't understand them, and however much I would love to pull out some Shakespearean quotation on happiness, I know I won't get it.  So I need to accept myself, I am Zahra. I can't memorise the spelling of "protein" I am not able to memorise quotes and say they have meaning for me because they won't. I am going to have to accept that it will be a series of lists and tasks that I have to complete to reach my happiness goal, and you can be the judge of whether this works or not!

The beginning

Here I am. I did it. The first step of my happiness project. Create a blog

And why create a blog. So I can track my happiness project. And so I remember to be happy. Afterall, thats the aim of all of this.

I am not an unhappy person. I am optimistic, I have lots of lovely family and friends whom I get on with amazingly. I have a lovely home, a good job, a lovely daughter who is mostly a pleasure. I go on holidays several times a year. Yes, I am happy. But here is my challenge, can I be happier? And can I learn to appreciate what I have and be more grateful. We will find out.

Ok, so this is not a new concept and you avid readers out there will know that this was done before. Gretchen Rubin set off on an adventure to find and fufill her life with happiness, and yes, I am ashamed to admit... I am copying her.

But my aim here is not to tell YOU what to do. My aim is to record my own happiness project so that you can follow my adventure. And so you can see if its worth it. And if you hate my blog, then read the book [[The Happiness Project by Gretchn Rubin]].

So on my task list, first item ticked off. Create a blog. I'll keep you waiting for a few days while I think more about what my happiness project is going to be.