Happiness Quiz

I would say that I am a relatively happy person and that seem to be able to cope well in my life when things don't go as I'd like but I wanted to see if I really was as happy as I think I am so I decided to take a few online tests and see what they can tell me.  I started with Oprah's "ARE YOU HAPPY" Quiz.  My results...

I even tried to take the quiz again and answer like I was the happiest person in the world and I got the same results so I don't know if I could get a higher score on this test.  If you take it and get a higher score than me, then I need to shake your hand. 

 

Next I took the Psychology Today test which I don't recommend.  After answering the 47 questions they just give you a teaser and expect you to pay $4.95 for a full report.  This is what they told me...

If I was truly naïve I might fork out $4.95 for your full report.  Apparently I am too cynical to trust you, but then again you should know that already if you knew your stuff.  Besides, I didn't ask how cynical I was, I asked how happy I am. Sheesh! The more I think about this the more frustrated it makes me.  They are telling me that I am not cynical enough?  They want me to go around doubting everyone and everything?  No thanks that is not the kind of world I want to live in.  I prefer to listen to Haim G. Ginott (I hope I have the right guy because the quote below has been attributed to a few different people) who said,

 

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

 

This is the kind of world that I want to live in.  If it so happens that I live in the way described above, and I get taken advantage of or walked all over or mistreated than so be it.  I will leave it to God to right where I have been wronged and fight my battles.  Living in a world of constant cynicism seems to be to be a far greater prison than the alternative. 

 

I was going to take a few more online quizzes just to prove to myself that I am happy, but I think I know myself well enough.  I am far from happy at all times but I do my best to be a good person, to be optimistic and to serve others.  I have an amazing family and many supportive friends and I think that that is good enough. It doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement but I have little to berate myself with.