Random Acts of Happiness

Are you happy now?

While I certainly hope you are, the statistical data shows that here in the US, there's a good chance you're not. The 2025 World Happiness Report was recently published, and the US, which ranks best in the world in many areas, has slipped to an all-time low in our global ranking of happiness, as surveyed in 140 countries. For reference, our highest ranking on the charts was in 2011, when we came in at #11; since then, we have continued to decline in the rankings to our current position of #24, which is a new low.  If you want to look at it on the bright side, we are still identifying as happier than most of the surveyed world, but #24? C'mon, we're better at being happier than that!

As a quick overview of how the data is compiled, the study is done in partnership with Gallup, and a single life-evaluative question (the Cantril Ladder) is asked to 1,000 people in each country, along with the three notes below:

• Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top.

• The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you.

• On which step of the ladder would you say you feel you stand at this time?

For a look at the 23 other countries that are winning the happiness race, here's a link to the WHR report ranking: WHR Dashboard

Here in the US, the happiness industry has become a ceaseless money-printing machine, and business is booming, but the products don't seem to be working. We are continuously bombarded with 'joy marketing' messages related to all aspects of increasing our happiness and living our best lives. You've undoubtedly seen plenty of them, ranging from vacations and pharmaceuticals to mental health apps, supplements, pajamas, cooking utensils, relaxation products, and personalized wellness coaching programs. That partial list just scratches the surface, and the entertainment industry is a whole other topic with an infinite number of podcasts, how-to videos, social media influencers, and digital content aimed at teaching people how to become happier. Finding practical and impactful information can be a needle-in-the-haystack exercise, but one suggested watch is Robert Waldinger's TedTalk, "What Makes a Good Life," based on the longest-running study ever completed on achieving happiness. (More on that in a minute).

For some historical context, the quest to understand and increase happiness has been going on long before our time. Aristotle is on record expounding on 'eudaemonia' and the virtues of living well.  Romans, including Cicero and Seneca, both academic philosophers, were convinced that the secret to 'vita beata' (the happy life) was related to temperance, justice, and service. If we fast-forward to more recent history (skipping centuries, but rest assured that happiness was always on our collective mind), we arrive at our founding fathers and the Declaration of Independence. The inclusion by the Framers of 'the Pursuit of Happiness' as one of our inalienable rights is understood to have meant something significantly different in 1776 than is generally interpreted today. Specifically, at the time of writing it was meant as a communal, not individual, focus. This would align the goal with the original and broad philosophical definitions of actions that bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people. Happiness was a collective goal for the public benefit, not meant as an individual pursuit.

Coming back to our present-day reality, data from the 'Harvard Study on Adult Development', conducted over 75 years, suggests one of the fundamental causes of our declining happiness rates is the fact that we have tended to adopt a siloed outlook on how we pursue it and what we believe will allow us to achieve it. How we got here is certainly understandable if you factor in the trend that gained momentum in the 1970s towards adding 'self' to many words to increase our happiness. Self-love, self-acceptance, self-care, and self-esteem, to name some of the best-known terms that have stood the test of time. While there is certainly nothing wrong with any of these concepts, the main detracting point of all of them is the fact that all this emphasis on 'self' continues to take us further from a readily available source of ongoing, sustainable happiness: other people.

The simplest solution to our happiness erosion problem may be all around us, in the form of random people. I realize the conventional warning from our parents was not to talk to strangers, but you are free to consider that warning long expired. You should, in fact, definitely talk to strangers, and so should your parents.

Two fundamental facts about the human brain are that we crave connection and novel experiences. Talking to random people that we encounter provides both of those things, and it also brings joy to the other person, assuming the likelihood of a pleasant exchange.

Feelings of loneliness and isolation understandably spiked during Covid (those were lonely and isolating times), but over 5 years later, the trend is still at troubling heights. While there is no longer a need to isolate, many of us are still doing so, and the increased daily time spent on our phones (approximately 4 hours per day, as I wrote about in Antisocial Media) is a striking corollary to our decreased happiness. Adding to the problem is the fact that social media is a constant comparison factory, and as the expression goes, comparison is the thief of joy.

If you are among those who would like to move up the happiness ladder, I have a simple suggestion that will cost you nothing. Develop the habit of spending additional time around people, and when doing so, initiate conversations with the new and novel people you encounter. This back-to-basics approach is beautifully simple, budget-friendly, and has no side effects or co-pays. If you're looking for ideas on where to start, simply Google listings for local farmers' markets, free community events, and, best of all, local organizations that need volunteers.

Keep in mind that every friend we have met in life was once a stranger, and every day is a new chance to meet some new ones. Let’s make the Summer of ’25 the happiest one ever!