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If You Were a Slot Machine and Being Happy Made You Shoot Out Coins...

I came across an old news story today called "Happiness Buys Success." The content itself is something you've probably already heard. Happy people are generally more successful. They tend to attract good things like job opportunities and healthy relationships. But the thing about the article that struck me was the use of the word "buys." I think it would help us a lot to think of happiness as a currency that we have the power to print.

What if every time you felt deeply happy, your body produced a bunch of coins, like a human slot machine? (Let's not dwell on the mental image, it's just a hypothetical question.) How would that change your life? I bet your happiness would become a top priority. You would really make an effort to get in a better mood when you were crabby. You wouldn't let yourself dwell on worries and worst case scenarios, and you would notice when something made you unhappy because the money would stop coming. (Out of wherever it would come out of. Maybe your navel. I don't know. Again, it's just a metaphor.)

You'd really invest the time to get to know yourself in order to find things that gave you a genuine feeling of happiness that wasn't fleeting or false. It would be very obvious to everyone that it was worth it for you to put all this effort into being happy, because you would have a bucket of money to show for it.

In real life, the payoff is less obvious than an instant stream of coins (and thank goodness, really, because how awkward would that be in romantic situations? You couldn't lie and say you had a nice time if you didn't produce any coins at all on the whole date. You might have to bring a coin with you and pretend you just made it. Just to be nice. )

It's so hard to get through our heads, but happiness really does have a very direct impact on success. And not just monetary success, but also the success of your relationships and personal goals. Researchers keep publishing articles like these, but it's hard for us all to let go of what we thought we knew - that we need to trade out happiness for a while to get successful, and then we'll be happy again because we will have earned it back.  That's just not true. Happiness is a intangible but very real currency that has the power to buy us the success we're working towards. The unhappy road to success is actually the slowest, most difficult way to get there.

"Happiness Buys Success." The content itself is something you've probably already heard. Happy people are generally more successful. They tend to attract good things like job opportunities and healthy relationships. But the thing about the article that struck me was the use of the word "buys." I think it would help us a lot to think of happiness as a currency that we have the power to print.

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