How To Find True Happiness
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Let’s play a game!

Are you ready?

Considering the current world population, can you take a wild guess on how many people are happy?

For the answer, let us look at some interesting statistics gathered by George Ortega of The Happiness Show.

At any given time, one fourth of Americans are mildly depressed! Here’s another startling fact: Most people on this planet claim that they are LESS than 65% happy.

We might think that those people who say that they are MORE than 65% happy are those who are rich. You think this is true?

Let me show you another set of statistics. The personal income of Americans has increased more than 2 1/2 times over the last 50 years YET their happiness level has remained the same. Furthermore, 37% of the people on Forbes List of Wealthiest Americans are less happy than the average American! Professor Daniel Kahneman of the University of Princeton shares the same findings for the British people, “Standard of living has increased dramatically and happiness has increased not at all, and in some cases has diminished slightly.”

Indeed, true happiness is elusive. Most people continue to look for happiness but fail to find it. Even the great achievers, the wealthy, and most powerful people on earth have been striving for it, yet many failed to have it. Is happiness impossible to achieve?

Happiness is not impossible to attain. Didn’t we feel ecstatic when we were promoted? How about when we got our first paycheck? Didn’t we feel happy while in a loving relationship? How about the first time when we cradled our child in our arms? How about being in the company of close friends? It might have been a long time ago and we totally forgot that once in our life we have experienced moments of happiness.

Why is happiness so elusive for most people? Could it be that we have been looking for happiness at the wrong places? Is it possible that we have the wrong concept of happiness?

In all these discouraging statistics and questions, this report aims to provide a ray of hope. Experiments conducted by New Zealand psychologist Kaye Haye, in line with The Happiness Increase Experiment, “have empirically demonstrated that individuals can be trained to be 25 percent happier through various training programs from two to ten weeks.”

This report presents breakthrough ideas in order to equip the reader with tools on how to achieve happiness. As individuals, we have a choice. We can always choose to find happiness. This report points to its various sources. Succeeding chapters will provide ideas on how to create and achieve happiness.

In addition, this report discusses the different causes of unhappiness and teaches us how to overcome them. It cites several barriers to happiness. One such barrier is our unrealistic expectations. We must always remember we cannot command the world to function according to our own desires. We can only control our needs and wants, but not the forces needed to achieve them. If we keep on desiring endlessly, we are just exposing ourselves to unhappiness. To balance off barriers to happiness, there are happiness enhancers. What will lift our moods and reinforce pleasant disposition? One of the objectives of this report is to provide the reader with keys to living a longer, healthier, and happier life. It is hoped that after reading this report, we will be able to pursue happiness in all areas of our lives.

Happiness is a choice. We are in control of our own happiness as only we can decide what to think and feel. As Helen Keller said, “Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.”