If you take a random sample of humans and you analyze the activities they do and the amount of time they dedicate to them, you will see an unsurprising pattern.
We work most of the time, some of us to earn money, others to find meaning in life others in search of fulfillment.
We also like to spend that money buying things to fill holes in our lives.
Other activities include the search of love, sense of belonging, spirituality, etc.
Unfortunately, those efforts are wasted, because the amount of happiness they bring is close to zero.
Let me explain.
Every person has a fixed amount of happiness, this is the default and it does not matter their condition in life, they will always return to this default.
If someone has an 84% of the possible happiness and this person earns the lottery or gets quadriplegic, we are going to see a spike in his happiness, but in a few months he will return to a number equal or similar to 84% of happiness
I find this explanation, beautiful. Because it means that you have all you need inside you.
Of course, there are some things that can increase your happiness, but the percentages are soo low that it makes you think twice if is worth pursuing them. Socioeconomic status, education, family income, marital status and religious commitment account for only 3% of the variance in happiness. Is estimated that up to 80% of the happiness is a product of our DNA.
The areas with more return on your investment are: close human relationships, making yourself more sexually attractive and store resources only at the point where you are not starving.
After all, we are animals and our needs are very basic, the problem is that we think that we are more complex and we search for our happiness in things that are too abstract for our animal mind.
References
Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?
Brickman, Philip; Coates, Dan; Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 36(8), Aug 1978, 917-927.
Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being.
Ryff, Carol D.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 57(6), Dec 1989, 1069-1081.
Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon
David Lykken, Auke Tellegen First Published May 1, 1996
Can you cite your sources on this fixed happiness measure? How would this relate to those with depression, as their happiness level would be very low due to chemical imbalances. What about manic depressives ? Is their fixed happiness their manic episodes? Just curious and interested in the topic.
The references have been added. You have great questions, I would try to find answers and update the post.