Hey guys, I am excited to discuss something unique today with you all because you are my sounding board. I came across an interesting term today, which I am sure most of you must have heard about too. I may have heard it before but must not have given it a thought but when I heard it today, it struck me. The word I am talking about is “Happiness Quotient”.
We have all heard of Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Quotient and now there has been this addition called Happiness Quotient. When I looked up the meaning of this word on dear old Google, I got this nicely worded definition, “The Happiness Quotient (HQ) is a concept that measures approximately the amount of happiness each person has achieved in their life. It then provides a blueprint to increase one’s HQ. It starts by describing the creation of a positive mind space, one that nurtures the positive emotions that increase happiness” (Source-The Happiness Quotient – Dr. Rekha Shetty, Penguin Random House India)
On reading this definition, I was very impressed. Here we are looking at actually measuring the amount of happiness we have achieved in our lives and then it goes on to guide us as to how we can increase our HQ. Well it may sound so simplistic but is it really so simple? Can we really measure all the happiness we have achieved in our lives? And can we really plan how to increase our HQ further and achieve that as well?
Well the first part to me looks sort of difficult as I cannot fathom how a person would be able to measure accurately all the happiness he has achieved in life so far. I mean we do not keep a count and our lives are so fast paced that it is virtually difficult to keep track of all our moments of happiness. This is my simple view which I think most will agree with. However, the latter part i.e. preparing a blueprint to increase the HQ may be possible definitely.
See we all want to be happy and we all try to make our own selves and our near and dear ones happy by putting in efforts to that end. Happiness at the end of the day matters to all and all want to be party to it. But unfortunately, as easy as it comes, we ourselves are to blame for keeping on driving it away from ourselves. Happiness can be found in the simplest of things in life, but we need to realize that. We are so engrossed and diverted in our everyday struggles that we often fail to spot these simple moments of happiness and relish them.
A little effort can lead us a long way into the treasures of happiness but we fail to realize this fact and make a big deal about obtaining happiness and being happy in life. Here I would like to quote the words of the Great Saint Dada J. P. Vaswani, “To be happy, make others happy. The Happiness that you give to others comes back to you”. Simple words but so true. As we all know, karma is like a boomerang and comes back to us. So what we sow, shall we reap. So if we want to truly be happy, we need to make others happy and it will come back to us.
So it is the season of cheer and happiness and let us all try to spread the happiness to as many as we can and let us try to enhance our personal HQ in the process.
Have a nice day,
Dr. Rajesh Mankani
