Generosity boosts happiness

What’s happiness?

I don’t think happiness is anyone's unique feeling.

Joy is happiness, laughter is happiness.

Being around your loved ones is happiness.

Feeling content, for whatever reason, is happiness; feeling satisfied and fulfilled is happiness.

That feeling you get when you win at something is happiness; relief is happiness.

If I had a gun at my head to define happiness in one sentence, I’d define happiness as, Feeling good.

There have been many studies on happiness, which I’ve highlighted in many articles.

One common variable that seems to show up in every study is that generosity boosts happiness.

When you are generous to others, happiness follows.

As an example, a friend called the other day with a complex international tax question that I was able to explain in a way that was no longer complex.

He was so appreciative and I felt good afterward.

That good feeling lasted about 15 minutes.

Then a few hours later I received an email from a first-time, self-published author who wanted to know what he needed to do to succeed as an author.

I spent about 30 minutes crafting a very long email, bullet-pointing the key things I learned over the years, that I felt were critical to my success.

I got an email back from this person thanking me profusely.

That feeling of happiness stayed with me for about an hour.

While neither of these two individuals will very likely ever be able to adequately repay me for helping them, I think they already have by giving me 1.25 hours of happiness,

I think the real takeaway is that we should all devote a portion of every day to being of service to others.

Being of service to others is a form of generosity and generosity creates happiness for the person providing that generosity.

The key is being on the lookout and making yourself aware of opportunities to be of service to others.

When you make generosity a daily habit, you’ll be happy every day of your life.

About Tom Corley Tom is a CPA, CFP and heads one of the top financial firms in New Jersey. For 5 years, Tom observed and documented the daily activities of wealthy people and people living in poverty and his research he identified over 200 daily activities that separated the “haves” from the “have nots” which culminated in his #1 bestselling book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. Visit the website: www.richhabits.net