don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

This is the third in a series of short essays on happiness and REAL wellness. I developed the phrase REAL wellness to differentiate one kind of corporate health program from another. What passes for worksite wellness today is really not wellness at all, at least not the kind I ever promoted. REAL wellness is an antidote to calling risk reduction "wellness." Risk reduction and prevention are not wellness. Worksite risk reduction or prevention "wellness" programs are a good thing for employees—from a medical standpoint, but they do not offer favorable opportunities for staff and others to learn life enrichment skills.

Furthermore, faux worksite "wellness" is not geared to "getting weller" for its own sake, but instead seeks to constrain business costs by reforming the ill-advised habit patterns of workers. The latter goal is good, but the former—becoming "weller," gives a much higher payoff. That's because REAL wellness will accomplish both objectives—it will lower bad habit patterns while inspiring mindsets and behavior initiatives that advance well-being. In this manner, illness risks will automatically be reduced.

In summary, risk reduction is a beneficial side effect of REAL wellness, not the (limited) purpose of the endeavor.

REAL wellness entails positive thinking and acting based upon a commitment to reason, exuberance and liberty. Those words represent the acronym R-E-A-L (reason, exuberance and liberty). REAL wellness education is targeted to lead employees to desire a high quality of life.

Happiness, at least an understanding and the experience of happiness, is an important element in a REAL wellness lifestyle. In this essay, I offer a little mental exercise you can experience to stimulate an insight or two about your own level of happiness. Are you ready?

Think of a turning point in your life, a time when you chose a college, a job or a location in which to settle. When you made that fateful choice, you indirectly chose NOT to attend, work or live somewhere else. As a result, your fate was channeled or led off in one direction, or down one proverbial road, not another. The same applied to your selection of a mate. When you picked a preferred romantic candidate as your wife or husband, you eliminated someone else from that coveted role (don't tell your mate about this).

This is true of any key choice or "turning point" you made over the years. Imagine how dramatically each such choice has affected so much of what has happened since, particularly how different (in unknowable ways) your life would be today had you made other picks. Contingencies such as these have shaped history, and they shape our lives, too, for better or worse. We never know which.

And now, the key question of the exercise—do you suppose you are more or less happy at the present time than you would have been if you had made a different choice at any one of these decision points? Pick one or two and make a guess—happier or less so? Why? How could you possibly know?

Of course, you can't ever know about that which never happened, in part because there can be no way to identify what variables would have come into play. But, you can make guesses —and identify your assumptions that color those guesses.

I'll ask the question again and pause: Take a broad guess—if you made different choices about jobs, colleges, locations and/or a mate (or mates), would you have been happier, or less happy?

Did you choose yet? Ok, here comes an interpretation for this little exercise.

According to research findings in the field of "hedonics" or happiness, the correct answer is probably this: "Things would have turned out pretty much the same, happiness-wise, either way."

Nearly all the "happiness" experts believe that. (See, "The Joy of Delusion," a review of Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert, New York Times, May 7, 2006.)

Well, all past choices have been made. They are PAST. Done. The bridges have been burned, so to speak, so focus on what lies ahead.

By learning more about the art and science of happiness as part of REAL wellness, you might be able to boost your chances for more of it. That's certainly the idea of featuring happiness as one of five or so key skill areas included in REAL wellness as part of the reason, exuberance and liberty emphases. Insist on the real thing if your company sponsors worksite "wellness."

Prevention is good, but promotion of your life quality and opportunities for a more successful pursuit of happiness is much better. Well, it is MY opinion. What do YOU think? I'm guessing you will agree, but then I'm an optimist and that's one little factor that boosts my own happiness.

Be well and always look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of emotional intelligence. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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