Optimism - believing in the power of good

 I've been thinking about happiness and optimism recently. Especially at work, it seems everything is fine and dandy until the last few hours when it all comes crashing down and I'm grouchy and irritable. Why is this? Am I just tired? Hungry? What? Maybe the little issues throughout the day just pile up.

                                       

I can identify some behaviors that decrease my happiness. For example, playing mindless games on the
computer or my friend Kindle for extended periods of time depresses me. I start just to unwind or relax  
for a few moments but if I continue, I wallow in the wake of wasting time. Conversely, I can spend hours reading a book without negative repercussions. I think the difference is the impact to my soul. Reading a book replenishes me but mindless time wasters suck the energy and emotion away. You might wonder why I even start the inevitable time sucking games. Easy answer. I'm too overwhelmed to know where to start, even if I'm excited about a project. Does anyone else have this problem?

I do think I'm a fairly optimistic person. I do have hopefulness and confidence about the future, which is one definition. My favorite definition of optimism, though, is believing in the power of good.

How do you measure happiness? Just ask Gallup - they try to measure everything. But this was interesting:  In 2011, Gallup conducted a world wide survey asking just five questions. How would you answer these questions?

1. Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?
2. Did you experience enjoyment yesterday?                                   
3. Did you smile and laugh a lot yesterday?
4. Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
5. Did you do or learn something interesting yesterday?

Over all, eight of the top ten most happy countries were in Latin America. Paraguay and Panama tied with 85% of the respondents answering 'yes.'

In the United States 76% of us were happy and the lowest measured countries were Singapore, Armenia and Iraq where only 46% to 50% of the respondents answered affirmatively.

It's interesting to me that feeling respected was part of this group of questions. It seems to me this is the only question that one cannot influence and yet, this scored higher than any other question at a whopping 85%. I listed the questions in order of their ranking.
1. 85%
2. 73%
3. 72%
4. 72%
5. 46%                               To see the study, click here.

How do you feel about these questions? Do you agree with them? What is important to your happiness?