David Cameron has launched a consultation to explore a new way of measuring Britain’s happiness level. This is an acknowledgment that there is much more to life than just the pursuit for financial successes. This is an admission that gross domestic product (GDP) used to carry out economic health check of a country may no longer be adequate.
I went into a deep conversation with a friend a couple of days ago. That was shortly before the recent announcement. The topic that dominated our frank discussion was happiness. What makes people to be happy? We started by outlining what we thought were key indicators for determining level of happiness. We talked about financial security. We talked about security of life and property. We talked about family cohesion. We talked about the availability of basic infrastructural facilities such as electricity, drinkable water, road network, health services, education, telecommunication, etc. We talked about employment opportunities for young adults. We talked about virtually every aspect of human life that we thought could impact the level of happiness of an individual.
We considered the case of Nigeria. We recalled a recent report that indicated that the happiest people on earth inhabit the country. We also recalled that this country lacks virtually all the happiness-enabling indicators outlined above. We thought that there seems to be a contradiction. If they were the real indicators of happiness, then Nigerian should have been populated by the most unhappy people on earth. We both agreed that whilst access to any of these facilities may provide an enabling environment for people to live better lifestyle, whatever makes an individual to be happy goes far deeper.
We however noted something else. We noted the role of feelings. We talked about the feeling we all have as human beings when we know that our lives and properties are safe where we live. We talked about the feeling we all have when we know that a nationally funded health care system is there to look after us whenever we fall sick. We talked about the reassuring look in the faces of parents whenever their academically able children bring home their university admission letters knowing that whatever happens, their children would complete their education with or without financial support from parents. We talked about the relative feeling of safety whenever we are in the comfort of our homes. We talked about the feeling we get when we leave work returning home in the evening knowing that there is a guaranteed uninterrupted supply of electricity to our homes 24/7. We noted how we often take this for granted. I told my friend the only once in ten years did I ever experience interruption and that was just for an hour. It came with a 24 hours notice.
We both agreed that, yes, these things are good for living quality of life. They are great for helping people to reduce the pains and hardship of living. They are fantastic for enriching one’s life. However, we could not agree whether their absence or presence necessarily affect the level of happiness.
We talked about all of this and much more. One thing became clear from our conversation. Happiness is a feeling. Our feelings come from our thoughts. Our thoughts come from the way we respond to our external stimulus. When we hear, see, touch, taste or smell something, our response can produce either positive or negative feelings. The stimuli did not produce the feeling. The way you responded to it did. In order words, whilst you cannot control the stimuli, you can control your response to it. You can manage your response. As Eleanor Roosevelt rightly said, “no one can make you feel inferior without your permission”. You must have embedded the feeling of inferiority in your thought process before someone comes to make you become of aware of it. In the same token, no one can make you feel unhappy without your permission. You must have embedded the feeling of unhappiness in your thought process before someone comes around and did something that gives you the feeling of unhappiness. The person has only come to help you bring to the surface, what you already have inside you.
We concluded that happiness or sadness is not something one person can bestow on another person. It is not something that depends on the environment in which you live. It all depends on who you are. It all depends of what lies inside you. Whether you live, in Nigeria, in China, in America, or elsewhere, you take whatever you are inside with you. You are what you think about all the time. You are the product of your thoughts. It is not about your bank balance. It is not about the number of cars in your garage. It is not about the number of houses you have. It is all about the way you live your life moment by moment. It is about the way you respond to your entire external stimulus. It is about the feeling you get when you have done something that adds a meaning to your life.
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