We think we will be happy once we get that promotion, or the new house, or have our first child, or have enough money to go on that trip. The problem is, we never truly arrive at an end. Once we get to our destination of happiness, everything will be great. We tend to treat happiness as a future state, something to achieve, a destination. Why you should stop thinking about happiness entirelyĪ lot of our struggle with “finding” happiness and knowing if we are living a happy life is the vagueness of the word. We settle in and we’re looking toward the next milestone, and so joy falls by the wayside.” I’m gonna put that off until after I get the promotion.’ And then what happens, we get the promotion, and then we need more. I’m not gonna do that hobby that I’ve been dying to take up. We say, ‘Okay, I gotta get that promotion, so I’m not gonna go see my parents this weekend. So we say, ‘I gotta get that promotion, I gotta buy that house, I gotta find my partner.’ And a lot of those things are not in our control fully, and a lot of these that require us to put off joy. She says, “When we focus on ‘Am I happy?’ Oftentimes what we concentrate on are the big things. It may be spending time with family, enjoying time working on a hobby you’re passionate about, a celebration, great conversation with friends, etc… In other words, joy is the little moments that build up to happiness.Īs Ingrid shares, we may not notice it but we tend to put off joy in our pursuit of happiness. Things that make you laugh, smile, make you feel alive. Joy, on the other hand, is an intense momentary experience. Happiness is a long-term, ongoing evaluation of how we feel about our relationships, health, work, purpose, etc…Usually we evaluate this based on a certain period of days, weeks or months. In our quest to live fulfilled lives, it is important to understand the difference between joy and happiness.

The important distinction between joy and happiness You can watch a video of our full conversation below or just listen to the audio version as a podcast. In fact, it’s all around us.” Before we are able to create more joy and happiness at work and at home, we first need to define them separately, because a lot of times they get grouped together. In her book, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness (which was a Next Big Idea Club selection - chosen by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Dan Pink, and Adam Grant as one of the “two most groundbreaking new nonfiction reads of the season!) “Ingrid shares a moment of awareness that changed her life. What is happiness and joy to you? We all have times that we struggle to find one or both. Joy and happiness are two very important aspects of life, and they are just what we need now as we face difficult times around the world.

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