What a week last week!
We got an important quotation done with my colleague. What a relief. I kicked-off two new projects, both with an awesome accountability and support group. Very exciting and a bit frightening, too. We had a wonderful webinar for professional sport coaches. Somewhat unnerving due to the wide range of attendee profiles. We, at Finnish Happiness Research Association, got a surprising offer for help from our colleagues at the States, as they are concerned about our safety. So heartwarming, deeply touching and unexplainably healing. Tears were involved.
Talk about richness of emotions we got to experience! At work! So empowering to allow a free flow of all emotions. Really, part of happiness, too, an on individual level.
Which brings us to the last, but not least.
On Friday last week, Finland was ranked as the happiest country in the world for the fifth time in a row! Obviously we’re doing something right as a country. The long-term efforts on building a wellbeing nation has paid off. All Nordic countries were ranked on TOP10. So, on what measures did we get that status?
The World Happiness Report‘s measurement of subjective well-being relies on three main well-being indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions.
The principal source of data for life evaluations is the Gallup World Poll, which asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the mental image of a ladder. The best possible life is marked as a 10 and worst possible as a 0. Typically, around 1,000 responses are gathered annually for each country on this scale, referred to as the Cantril ladder. The rankings are based on a three-year average to provide more precise estimates with increased sample size.
Positive affect of positive emotions is given by the average of individual yes or no answers for three questions about emotions experienced or not on the previous day: laughter, enjoyment, and learning or doing something interesting.
Equally, negative affect is given by the average of individual yes or no answers about three emotions experienced on the previous day: worry, sadness, and anger.
The key variables explaining these above mentioned life evaluations include gross domestic product per capita, healthy life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom to make life choices and perceptions of corruption.
Although I’m happy to be a Finn, it’s good to remember, that even though Finland ranked number one, we still have much work to do. Happiness isn’t equally distributed, especially on the individual level. No matter how great the outside conditions are, in the end, being happy is a subjective experience, and as such, an inside job.
Perhaps the most encouraging message of this year’s report was, that benevolence is surging globally. Especially in terms of donating to charity, helping a stranger and volunteering.
Given that the measurement was completed already before the war in Ukraine, this gives us hope, don’t you think?
Also, an interesting point is that, in 2020, the Gallup World Poll for the first time asked questions on the experience of
- your life being in balance
- feeling at peace with your life
- experiencing calm for a lot of the day
- preferring a calm life to an exciting life
- focus on caring for others or self.
Two important points were offered by these questions according to WHR. First, balance/harmony “matter” to all people. Second, balance and feeling at peace with life could be considered central to well-being.
As the World Happiness Report offers us one way of looking at happiness, I’d like to ask you the following questions to define it for yourself. These answers are for you, no need to rank or compare them with those of others.
- What is happiness to you?
- Is happiness part of your daily life?
- If yes, how?
- If no, is there something you can do about it?
- Do you have a happiness practice?
- If yes, how do you practice happiness?
- If no, is it something you’d like to have?
If you’d like to cultivate happiness as a competitive advantage in your life or business, do not hesitate to get in touch! We’re here to help and have just the right tools!
Much love,
Paula
xx