America’s (Expensive, Not Very Effective) Obsession with Happiness

The percentage of Americans who say they’re “very happy” rarely rises above one-third. So, what’s going wrong?

Part of the problem might be that many of us have a bad habit of defining happiness in terms of things that are hard to come by, like wealth and fame.

It’s easy to imagine that an infusion of cash would change your life. But a famous study discovered there's hardly any difference in happiness between people who had won the lottery and people who hadn’t.

As for fame? It's better to have a handful of good friends than millions of fans. Studies suggest that nearly 60% of the difference between how happy people are can be attributed to their friendships.

So, the bad news: Our obsession with happiness is probably leading us to waste a lot of time and money. But, the good news: Happiness is obtainable for just about everyone … and it isn’t expensive.

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