I have always been a pretty happy guy unless I am losing at something. Over the past year I feel happier than I have felt before. It got me wondering how I could measure my happiness. Happiness is a subjective feeling, you either feel happy or you don’t. But is there a way to provide an objective measure to a subjective feeling? I decided to attempt this with a happiness scorecard.
Scorecards are a tricky science. Business executives love them because they can give a false sense of security and knowledge. The devil is in the details. I recall a week long scorecard exercise at Motorola where we attempted to measure and gauge different process management applications. The methodology and weighting underwent a thorough examination and debate. However, the scoring was on a 1-5 scale for each category. So the final results ranged from approximately 4.2 to 3.2 for all 5 applications. We had spent all week scoring these systems, and then the scoring leader said “Well, the scores were really quite close, there is only 1 point separating all the applications, we’ll have to re-evaluate our metrics.” I felt this strange complex feeling of anger, absurdity, stupidity, and laughter. I was living a Dilbert cartoon where any concept of logic and things making sense are thrown out the window.
I am determined not to make that mistake with the happiness scorecard. The scale of each happiness metric will be 1-10. The weightings will be double-checked to ensure the sum of all scoring weights equals 100%. And there will be a sanity check of the results, to make sure I don’t give money 1% when everyone knows that while money doesn’t buy happiness, it sure makes life easier.
The first step is to create categories. I defined my key life happiness areas as relationships, personal growth, health, spirituality, career, finances, and accumulated stuff. My initial thought on the importance of each category, or the weighting if you will:
- Relationships 50%
- Personal Growth 15%
- Health 10%
- Spirituality 10%
- Career 5%
- Finances 5%
- Accumulated Stuff 5%
This shocked me. How could I not care about money or career at all? If I lost my job or was broke, I would be miserable until I remedied the situation. Spirituality had to count for more, how could I only think 10% of my happiness related to my beliefs and satisfaction with God? I decided to breakdown the categories into more refined items to score against. I realized I did not care about accumulated stuff at all. However, there were "Other Important Stuff" that helped to make me happy.
Relationships - 50% - I decided 50% still seemed right. I don't see how I could be happy if my relationships weren't successful and making me feel great. It is vital.
- Significant Other
- Family
- Friends
Personal Growth-10% - I can only go a few days without having some activity in this category.
- Expressing Creativity
- Expanding Mind
- Meditation Discipline
- Mastering Emotions
Health -10% - When your health is failing, nothing else will seem to matter. When you have it, it is an afterthought. Very tough to give a percentage rating to its importance. Scorecards are not easy to develop.
- Gym attendance consistency
- Sciatic physical therapy
- Fingernail biting
- Stomach
- Diet
Spirituality - 15% - This should really be higher than 10%. Ok, I just edited it to be higher. Connection to God is probably the most important goal to have in life. But in my opinion your relationships are a key gateway to that connection, thus the weighting differential.
- Course in Miracles Lesson Progress
- Meditation Discipline
- Attunement to Feelings While Being Present in Reality
- Connection to God
Career - 2% - I defined career as having a job working for someone else. I have no desire to do this for much longer. I only kept it at 2% because having bad co-worker relationships can affect my happiness, and I do like to get paid as long as I am stuck at a job.
- Job fulfillment and satisfaction
- Pay
- Performance
- Co-worker relationships
Finances - 5% Odd. I really like having money. I am shocked this is so low. But I recall a couple of jobs that paid very well and my skin would literally crawl because I was stuck there. I felt awful. Another reason this is not as high is because I believe that if the rest of your life is in order, particularly personal development, money is going to flow more easily to you. However, some of my contributors to happiness, especially in the "other important stuff" category below, rely heavily on having disposable income. I just made a decision to separate "things I need money for" and "things specifically related to money" on this scorecard.
- Personal Balance Sheet
- Spending Not out of hand
- Overall Amount of Money
Other Important Stuff - 8% I like living in an upscale pad with a good view in a nice neighborhood. It contributes to my happiness when I have a huge variety of activities, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, etc. within walking distance. I also like being able to fly across the world as much as possible. And having fun toys like an xbox and a bose sound dock make life more fun.
- Quality of Residence
- Toys
- Travel
So I figured out my categories and weights. Am I happy? (Can't format my blog software to display a grid, so please bear with the "grid" below)
CATEGORY WEIGHT SCORE WEIGHTED SCORE
Relationships 50% 10 5
Personal Growth 10% 8 .8
Health 10% 2 .2
Spirituality 15% 8 1.4
Career 2% 4 .08
Finances 5% 5 .25
Other Important Stuff 8% 9 .72
totals 100% 8.45 out of 10
I'd say that is quite happy, I am, well, happy about that. The most important category received a perfect score, which trust me, is a great feeling. Once I can work for myself and get my health in order, my lowest scores will take care of themselves. Life is good.
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