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Promoting Happiness at Home

My hometown of Seattle, in the northwest corner of the U.S., has given me yet another reason to love it.

Inspired by work done to promote Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, a group of Seattle residents have launched a Seattle Area Happiness Initiative.

Like the folks at the New Economics Foundation, the group in Seattle realizes that economic metrics alone don’t really capture how a society is doing overall. So, their goal is to popularize a new set of metrics and then use these metrics to promote policies that contribute to residents’ happiness.

The Initiative uses a survey to measure things that actually make people happy. It collects information on 9 categories of well being – categories that are way more relevant to day to day life than abstract economic metrics:

1. psychological well-being;
2. physical health;
3. time or work-life balance;
4. social connection and community vitality;
5. education;
6. access to arts, culture and recreation;
7. environmental quality and access to nature;
8. good governance;
9. material well-being.

Anyone may take the survey – not just residents of Seattle. So, test yourself!

I did, and I thought it was really interesting. As soon as I finished the survey (which is anonymous and confidential), I received an instantaneous well-being score for each of these categories. Not only did the survey let me see how I’m doing compared to others around the world, but it also reveals those areas which aren’t working so well. That’s important, because once we identify the factors which undermine our wellbeing, we can work for changes – individually as well as at the policy level – to make things better.

My survey results rated high on having a sense of purpose, trusting my community and access to opportunities to learn. For those, I am grateful. But the survey also showed that I worry about the environment and want more time with friends. This inspired me to invite some over for dinner, not just to talk about helping the environment, but also to relax together and build community. I did this and you know what? The evening made me happy.
This survey takes 20-30 minutes to complete and you cannot stop and start over, so do the survey when you have a period of free time.

If this stuff intrigues you, as it does me, then gather up some friends in your community to talk about launching a happiness initiative there. The Seattle folks have created a bunch of resources for getting started, which are all free to use and share.

If you do take the survey, or start discussions in your community about increasing happiness and well-being, please tell us about it. We’d like to know what you discover along the way. What changes in your life, and in our local and national policies, would make you happier?

 

posted by Annie Leonard
July 20, 2011
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  • http://wanderaus.wordpress.com Paula

    Wow! Taking the survey made me realize how much control I have over the things that make me happy. And what a good idea to think about how old I think I will get. Puts a life in perspective. Thanks!

  • http://www.sustainableseattle.org Laura Musikanski

    Thanks much from the Happiness Initiative team for this post Ann!

    We just improved the survey so it is only 10 minutes now!

    Two things we think are really important about this project are openness and access.

    By access we mean that anyone anywhere can conduct a Happiness Initiative. To us, access is core to the Happiness Initiative. Already we have issued over 100 toolkits for starting Happiness Initiatives. We are working with teams in Washington, Oregon and Wisconsin where the local government will use the data for policy and nonprofits will conduct the project. In September we will have a packaged website anyone can have for conducting a Happiness Initiative. We want to spread Happiness Initiatives across the country!

    By openness we mean our relationship to data. To us, openness is the heart of the Happiness Initiative: anyone can take the survey, anytime. Usually data – like air quality, high school drop out rate or salmon count – is collected by a few. This is a flaw in the sustainability, well-being or quality of life indicator field. The theory goes if we have better data, we make better decisions. But we know this is not true. All of us receive tons of data – everything from that smoking will kill you to green house gases keep going up and up and up, et-cetera. In this project, the data collection process is different. It comes from you. It is personal. You are the data.

    We are translating the survey in to languages spoken by immigrants and refugees, so more people can be the data. We are also putting it into an app geared to appeal to youth. In Seattle, we are going into food banks to survey the homeless, and creating guidelines for others in other areas to do the same. We will be doing the same for domestic violence victims (25% of the population), men of color, and those living at or below poverty.

    This all still begs the question of representation. Is the data representative of the population? We are working to find a solution so each area that conducts a Happiness Initiative will have access to the resources so a representative survey can be done. This means a pollster comes in and surveys a random sample. At the same time, our researchers show us that if a large enough number of people take the survey, the results are within a point or two of a representative survey. How do we know this? Because surveys are composed of other surveys that are tried and true – or “verified.” Parts of the Happiness Survey are based on other organization’s survey and we can compare data. All in all, if enough people take the survey in any area, the data will probably tells truth.

    To recap- take the survey, and think about conducting a Happiness Initiative in your area. We hope you will join us and help spread happiness!

  • http://www.icpj.net Chuck Warpehoski

    Thanks for the link (though it looks like you might have to adjust the link formatting, it took a bit of work for me to get there).

    I am so happy to see a municipality collecting data other than how many green pieces of paper change hands. This is a good first step to broadening our perspective of how we measure success.

    Since one thing that give me pleasure is nit-picking, I would suggest that the organizers think a bit more about how to evaluate education. I have not been part of any formal education processes in the last year, but I am actively involved in self-education through reading, book groups, and informal discussions. Believe me, as the parent of a 10-month-old, every day is a learning experience, but the survey misses this kind of learning.

    I offer this quibble not to discredit the survey, but to offer a perspective as to how it can continue to improve.

  • http://promotinghappiness.com Julia Barnard

    I was sent the link to your site by a friend who knew how much I like filling out surveys that offer happiness insight!

    Reading, learning, writing and sharing happiness tips always gives me a wellbeing boost. So thanks for your post and thanks for the link.

  • http://www.prosklitirio-eshop.gr Prosklitiria Vaptisis

    Well i follow your advice and take the survey which actually was very interesting.
    I also spend some time talking about this issue with some friend.
    One thought i had is that unfortunately today our life is very complicate and everything is about money and material.
    It is now very difficult to change (or even try) this route.
    Even if some people decide to change this route and try to find happiness on other non-material things, i think that soon we will have to give-up since most part of out planet right now fight only for this money and material things.

  • http://www.mybikecodes.co.uk terry

    Saw Bhutan on a Michael Palin documentary and thought it was an amazing policy decision. Well done to Seattle for taking this initiative on.