“
‘Hector said to the professor, ‘Among my patients are people with no money or health problems, who have close-knit families, interesting and useful jobs, but who are quite unhappy: they are fearful about the future, dissatisfied with themselves, they see only the bad side of their situation. There was one determinant of happiness missing from your list just now: people’s way of looking at things. In short, people whose glass is always half full are clearly happier than those whose glass is always half empty.’
‘Aha!’ said the professor. ‘That’s a typical psychiatrist’s observation. But you’re right, it’s an important point.’ And he explained to Hector that there was a big debate among professors of Happiness Studies. There were those who thought that you were happy above all because your life was full of positive things or events, like in Hector’s list. Other professors disagreed: they thought that happiness depended above all on your way of looking at things, on that idea of the glass being half full or half empty.
‘Colleagues of mine who defend the second idea tend to think that happiness levels are a bit like blood pressure or weight: they may vary from time to time according to circumstances, but generally they return to the same basic level, which is different in each individual. They study people who have experienced great success or great misfortune and observe that after a few months their moods return more or less to what they were before.’
‘And what do you think?’ Hector asked.
‘A little of both. We depend on circumstance, but some people have more of a gift for happiness than others.’
***
Lesson no. 20: Happiness is a certain way of seeing things.
Lesson no. 21: Rivalry poisons happiness.
Lesson no. 22: Women care more than men about making others happy.
Lesson no. 23: Happiness means making sure that those around you are happy?
”
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