The Roots of Happiness

Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. He suggest that we not believe our own publicity and realize we are better than our worst failures and not quite as good as our proudest achievements.

"From field studies to laboratory studies, we see that winning or losing an election, gaining or losing a romantic partner, getting or not getting a promotion, passing or not passing a college test, on and on, have far less impact, less intensity and much less duration than people expect them to have. In fact, a recent study -- this almost floors me -- a recent study showing how major life traumas affect people suggests that if it happened over three months ago, with only a few exceptions, it has no impact whatsoever on your happiness."

Here him at Ted Talks at
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html