How happy are you? Are you satisfied with your life, or do you want more? Dr. Robert Holden is a psychologist, founder of the Happiness Project in England and the author of Happiness Now! (Hodder Mobius; New Ed edition, 1999)
To measure life satisfaction, he created the following statements. Read them and then use the 1–7 scale to rate your level of agreement and add your answers together.
1 = Not at all true
4 = Moderately True
7 = Absolutely True
1. In most ways, my life is close to ideal.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2. The conditions of my life are excellent.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3. I am satisfied with my life.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
If you scored 15 or under, you are dissatisfied with your life. If you scored 31 or higher, you are extremely satisfied with your life.
If you scored somewhere in the middle, Holden shared this advice on Oprah's TV show: the key to being happy is overcoming "destination addiction," which he defines as "living in the not-now."
"It's always about tomorrow, so you're chasing 'more,' 'next' and 'there,'" he says. "You promise yourself that when you get there, you'll be happy. And I promise you, you won't, because you'll always set another destination to go for."
Does this describe you? If so, counseling can help! April is Counseling Awareness Month and I want to do my part to build awareness of how counseling can positively influence lives. If you have a positive story about how counseling helped you make a change, please share it. And, if you are ready to make a change in your life, visit the counseling page of my website to learn more.
As, always, take care of yourself!
Susan
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