Joy begets joy.

You probably know at least a few people who are eternal, effervescent bundles of bliss: no matter how tiring or challenging their day, they just exude happiness. And whenever they enter a room, every person inside it lights up like a holiday tree, catching some of their pleasure, if only momentarily.

Ever wonder what they're doing differently?

Here's their ‘secret', according to Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis:

They were born lucky. They won the cortical lottery. Digest these quotes from the research article, Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill:

1. Research has shown over and over again “that one's level of well-being is reasonably stable over time (Eid & Diener, 2004).”
2. “Behavioral genetic studies show that well-being is moderately heritable.” Identical twins raised apart “were much more similar in their levels of well-being than were dizygotic [fraternal] twins who were reared apart.” (Tellegen et al. 1988)
3. “Whereas any single demographic factor typically correlates less than .2 with well-being reports…. personality tends to correlate much more strongly with well-being.” Personality… changes little over a person's lifetime (Deiner & Lucas, 1999).

Hmmm. That's great news for those born happy. Kinda sucks for me.

I definitely didn't win the cortical lottery. 

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It is easy

Most often people do not realize they are even sabotaging their happiness. They just believe that happiness eludes them. But all too frequently if we step back and look at things from a neutral perspective we can see how we sabotage our own happiness.

Why don’t we more actively pursue happiness?

1. We think hard work and delayed gratification will get us there.
2. We believe its selfish.
3. Cynicism: We think the world is already doomed and it doesn't matter
4. Thinking our happiness should come second.
5. We think we’re already as happy as we're going to get.

Each of these mentalities impedes or distorts our quest to be as happy as we can and want to be.

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