Let’s step back and look at some happy lives. Seligman has identified three paths of happiness which he’s titled the Pleasant Life, the Good Life, and the Meaningful Life. The Pleasant Life focuses on pleasure. Happiness in the Pleasant Life is fleeting. The Good Life focuses on satisfaction from work, recreation, or some other activity. This happiness can be, and often is, lasting. And the Meaningful Life's contentment comes from being of service to humankind. The happiness of this life is also lasting.
What Makes Us Happy?
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi uses the term "flow" to describe the experience of engaging in the kind of activity that is personally gratifying. When you experience "flow," time and space become irrelevant. You lose track of the clock and your worries fall away. "Flow" is total immersion in a task.
Writers, painters, scientists and other creative types often describe this phenomenon when discussing their work. However, it is a universal human experience. Childcare providers, stockbrokers, and laborers experience it as well. It is the single best indicator of your life’s passion.
Maybe you can’t pinpoint an activity that puts you in the "flow." Or you can identify it, but you don’t know how to incorporate it into your life. Life Coaches, self-help books, and psychotherapists who focus on positive life changes are all trying to help individuals identify their "flow" activities. You probably already know what it is. If not, find it and get on with your life.
Quick Fixes: Materialism and Grudges
To start on the path to happiness, drop some of your negative baggage off the first steep cliff, never to be recovered. First, forget about the Joneses. Use your own yardstick to measure success and happiness. And forgive. Grudges are poison and wastes of mental energy.
Now, as far as materialism goes, technically there’s nothing wrong with wanting beautiful things. In fact, "Appreciation of beauty and excellence" is a signature strength according to Seligman. As is the case with most of our personality traits, they can be spun to the positive or negative. So, "appreciation of beautiful things" can be brought to the dark-side when it mutates into "having beautiful things that are better than my friend’s beautiful things." You can still love Jaguars, Tiffany's jewelry, or a freshly painted house if you truly love those things.