The Pursuit of Happiness

Mint.com, a money managing site, also publishes a blog called Mint Life about everything and anything related to living a good, successful life. This week, they published a post (via AskMen.com) with a top 10 list of factors that determine happiness.

The factors are:

10. Having a short memory - Being able to forgive and forget

9. Exacting fairness - Striving for situations where people are treated equally

8. Having lots of friendships - Being extroverted and having many friends

7. Being spiritual - Having a connection and belief system

6. Thinking ahead - Being able to predict (guess) what will happen to you and plan accordingly

5. Develop a skill - "Live it, don't buy it." Make yourself happy rather than buying things that make you happy

4. Having personal control over one's life - If you want something, go get it

3. Defining success - Don't compare yourself to Will Smith if you're an accountant. Know what your picture of success is for you

2. Good genes - Sorry, but part of it comes from mom and dad!

1. Liking yourself - Have some self esteem and know that you are a good person

The most relevant of these to us soon-to-be-grads are 3-6. It's so important not to let other people's ideas of where you should be and what you should be doing get in the way. Do what you want to do. Define success for yourself. No one knows you better, and no one can tell you if you've made it or not. That leads to having control. Gregory Berns, a professor at Emory said, "satisfaction can arise only by the conscious decision to do something." Do everything that you can to get what you want. Pull out all of the stops. Then go one step further. Its the extra step that will put you ahead. Take the reigns and do whatever is necessary to put your life on track.

We've all done number 5. As college students we've spent a decade and a half learning skills, so go out and show the world what you've learned and what you can do. Anyone can flip burgers and make enough to survive, but true happiness comes when you are using your own skills, the thing(s) that make you unique, to survive in the real world.

So are we happy? Can we be? By knowing who you are, what you want, and having faith in what you are capable of, any one of us can be the happiest man or woman on earth!