Say you just won a ten-million-dollar jackpot. I bet you will be jumping up and down in your house, planning to empty your wish list; or you will be lying there and fully enjoying the moment of success. But I guarantee that this sense of happiness would not last long, probably not even longer than a week, considering you still have to face the constant pressure from work or family. It is often believed that success, which generally refers to money and fame, has to be the prerequisite for reaching happiness, and that happiness is the result of achieving material satisfaction. However, this sensation of contentment is dependent on material possessions. Once the feeling of freshness towards the possession wears off, people will fall back to a state of unhappiness, or even misery. In fact, Tal Ben Shahar offered a general definition for happiness, which suggested that happiness is more than mere material satisfaction. His definition of happiness is modeled by SPIRE, which suggests five equally vital aspects of happiness that we need to focus in order to achieve a total well-being: spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational, and emotional. Although many people may think that success is the condition for happiness, we actually should think of this relationship as reversed, where happiness is the condition for success, because happiness promotes both emotional and physical health, provides us with an inner motivation to maximize performance, and builds on people’s spiritual and relational well-being.

Just like Proverbs said, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). Research has proven that happiness benefits not only our mental health, but also our physical well being. According to research, individuals who display high levels of positive emotions are less likely to suffer from depression, social phobia, or anxiety (Lyubomirsky, et. al 824). Besides that, happy people have lower probability of drug use, which is an indicator of poor mental health (Lyubomirsky, et. al 824). As a result, without the physical hazards of drugs, these people are healthier than their less positive counterparts. The hypothesis that happiness can promote physical health has been proven through multiple studies. A study of more than 7,000 adults aged 45 to 72 years revealed that those who demonstrate dispositional optimism were 47% more likely to consume fresh fruits and vegetables than less positive people, who were prone to eating fried food or high-sugar products (Sapranaviciute-Zabazlajeva, et. al). In a 30-year study that focused on the relationship between happiness and survival rate, researchers found out on 32,000 people that the risk of death was “14% higher in unhappy individuals compared to their happier counterparts.” (Lawrence, et. al) These findings all proved the benefits of happiness on our physical and mental health, which are important elements on our way of achieving success.

Another way happiness leads to success is by bringing out our best performance or the best of ourselves by internally motivating us. Barbara Fredrickson proposed the Broaden and Build Theory, which states that positive emotions are essential in building resiliency and broadening our reception. She concluded several benefits of positive emotion, including “broadening people’s attention and thinking, fueling psychological resilience, and triggering upward spirals towards greater well-being” (Fredrickson 1375). Isen, through a two-decades of research on positive emotions, has suggested that positive emotions produce a “broad, flexible cognitive organization and ability to integrate diverse material.” (Isen qts. in Fredrickson, et. al 4) Positive emotions, in other words, contribute to higher levels of creativity and active thinking, and so to improved work performance. There are studies that proved participants with positive emotions set higher goals for themselves and reported more self-efficiency on laborious tasks (Lyubomirsky, et. al 831). Better performance automatically leads to better career and higher income, and this is supported by studies that have shown a direct relationship between positive emotions and employment and income. Data shows that happy people are more likely to graduate from college and secure better jobs. A study of 24,000 Russians revealed that the correlation between income and happiness was 0.48 (Graham qtd. in Lyubomirsky, et. al 823). In short, happiness enhances people’s performance and allows them to reach personal achievement.

Thirdly, happiness contributes to people’s spiritual and relational well-being by promoting one’s confidence and encouraging charitable behaviors. One study has shown that high levels of positive emotions were associated with high self-esteem and lesser self-critics. When faced with obstacles, such as tough tasks or negativity, happy persons exhibited great personal competence and tended to be more mature and effective (Lyubomirsky, et. al 830).  These positive emotions are being viewed as “opportunities to replenish one’s system, which has been depleted by grief” (Lyubomirsky, et. al 830). Another study found out that individuals who score high levels of happiness show greater tendencies in assisting others and displaying altruistic acts (Feingold qtd. in Lyubomirsky, et. al 828). Students who display frequent positive feelings are more likely to participate in community service activities, according to a study of high school students (Magan & Aharoni qtd. in Lyubomirsky, et. al 828). Another study showed that bosses with high levels of positive emotions tended to give back positive feedback to their employees, who then demonstrated higher job satisfaction and productivity (Lyubomirsky, et. al 822). This spreading of positive emotions is another idea mentioned by Barbara Fredrickson in her Broad and Build Theory, who suggested that happiness can build consequential personal relations and resources. In a way, happiness creates a sphere of influence that benefits not only an individual's spiritual well-being, but also interpersonal relations.

Many people tend to pursue fame and wealth as the way to reach happiness. Indeed, the success brought by money and fame can create certain levels of happiness. But on the other hand, as illustrated in the lottery example, money and fame do not guarantee long-term happiness. Daniel Gilbert has done research specifically on professors who were applying for tenure. He asked participants to predict their level of happiness when they receive the result, and how long this emotion would last. Almost all the participants said that they would be jumping for joy if they were tenured, and most thought this emotion would stay with them for a long time. But what actually happened was that the tenured professors were only happy for three months, and after that they were back to the level of happiness as before (Lyubomirsky, et. al 825). Similarly, a lot of celebrities are successful in terms of fame and fortune, but those do not bring them sustainable happiness. Many of them eventually succumbed to depression and, in some cases, drug use. In conclusion, happiness promotes people spiritually, physically, intellectually, relationally, and emotionally. It puts our bodies in a state of striving for best and contributes to our overall sense of well-being other than mere material gratification. In a way, happiness establishes a virtuous circle that improves people in all dimensions of well-being, in which case success simply becomes a by-product of happiness.

Works Cited

Fredrickson, Barbara L. “The Broaden–And–Build Theory of Positive Emotions.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 359, no. 1449, 29 Sept. 2004, pp. 1367–1377, 10.1098/rstb.2004.1512.

Lawrence, Elizabeth M., et al. “Happiness and Longevity in the United States.” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 145, Nov. 2015, pp. 115–119, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4724393/, 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.09.020.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja, et al. “The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 131, no. 6, 2005, pp. 803–855, 10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803.

Sapranaviciute-Zabazlajeva, Laura, et al. “Link between Healthy Lifestyle and Psychological Well-Being in Lithuanian Adults Aged 45–72: A Cross-Sectional Study.” BMJ Open, vol. 7, no. 4, 1 Apr. 2017, p. e014240, bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/4/e014240, 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014240.