You can take any activity in a person’s life and if you ask long enough, the last answer to “What do you get from…?” is always happiness. Try it sometime.
Happiness is the ultimate goal
Having loosely built the case that we ultimately want happiness, then it goes without saying that we want happiness in all the important areas of our life. But how happy is happy enough? And how can a person measure their level of happiness in various facets of their life, if they're looking for some outside perspective?
The Quality of Life Inventory can do the trick. This short survey asks an individual to both indicate how important a facet of their life is to their happiness, and then rate how satisfied they are with that facet of their life. For example, with the topic of money, it asks, “How important is money to your happiness?” and “How satisfied are you with the money you have?” From your answers, a report is generated on sixteen facets of your life with a weighted score for each area. It basically stacks up how happy you are in each area and allows you to see graphically where you are thriving and treading water.
You can, of course, gauge your happiness levels with broad strokes on your own. You have a pretty good feel for what’s going well and what’s not. However, using a measurement tool allows you to differentiate between areas to a greater degree than you would typically consider for yourself. It can also highlight some of the obvious areas for improvement that you irrationally explain away to yourself and others.
Secondly, if you have a partner, you can compare your results with theirs. It might launch a conversation around how to increase your sense of fulfillment, based on each person’s cherished goals, needs, and wishes*. It could lead to conversations about going back to school, changing careers, doing more volunteer work (or less!), spending more time building community, or improving your apartment, house, or yard. The quantified picture of your lives, while simplistic, can elevate a discussion beyond “I want…” versus “You want…” to one of shared interest in enhancing life fulfillment.
It pays to be intentional
It pays to be intentional about your decisions and activities. For each facet of your life, you can take action to increase your happiness level. If you’re dissatisfied with your friendships, you can take steps to meet new people or spend more time nurturing budding friendships. If you’re dissatisfied with your health, you can test out a walking routine with a friend. If your house is a disaster, you can pick one corner of one room and start tidying and organizing. Be mindful of how you spend your time and monitor whether your choices are helping or hurting your level of satisfaction.
Where can you start?
What facet of your life would you start with, if you could take some steps to boost your happiness quotient? The Quality of Life Inventory includes these areas: heath, self-esteem, goals and values, money, work, play, learning, creativity, helping, romantic love, friends, children, relatives, home, neighborhood, and community.
What do you want your life to look like in five years? Next year? How can you make intentional changes in the relevant facets of your life to achieve this? Will greater satisfaction in one area reduce the level of satisfaction in another? Develop a greater awareness of what makes you happy and then incorporate those insights into your plans for the future. It will make all the difference.
If you would like to learn more about the Quality of Life Inventory, give me a call or shoot me an email. I’ll be happy to send you a copy of the survey and we can mail it in for the results. There is a $30 fee for my services as a certified Quality of Life Inventory survey administrator. 414.305.3113. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
* Michael Frisch, PhD, from Baylor University created the Quality of Life Inventory. He coined the phrase "most cherished goals, needs and wishes." A group of us at MentorCoach took a class from him and he frequently played his guitar in class as a form of play, challenge, and learning. He is a strong advocate for making small improvements in each important area of a person’s life in order to flourish. I whole-heartedly agree.
