Happiness Percentages

I’ve mentioned before that one of my all-time favourite coffee-table reads is, ‘Seven: How many days of the week can be extraordinary?’ It rocks.

It rocks so much, that today I’m going to share a quick quote and reflection technique, straight from the pages. Here goes:

At age 87, Mick Carlson advised his son, “All my life there’s been one little rule that has worked wonderfully for me: If there’s any area of your life in which you’re less than 50 percent happy, make an immediate change.”

Side-note: an immediate change doesn’t have to be something incredibly dramatic, like ending a relationship or telling your boss what you think of them. It might be a small change; so teeny-tiny even that others might not even notice you’ve made it. So long as you notice, that’s all that matters.

Take a moment now to consider the different areas of your life – relationships, career, health and fitness, home and surroundings, fun, confidence and so on. Really, these areas themselves are unique to different people, depending on what kind of things these people value highly.

Whatever they are: what percentage of happiness would you currently assign to the significant areas of your life?

Answer it honestly.

And if something is under 50 percent… well, you know what to do.