Need to Invest in the Acquisition of Happiness:
To increase our happiness, we must live in such a way that our life- time value of happiness, or the sum of all of our IIH`s, becomes as high as possible. To maximize this quantity, we need to “invest” time and effort, just as we do when we choose to go on to a university to receive a higher education, or to go beyond.

Most people recognize the great financial investment required to go, for example, to medical school and become a surgeon. A person considering the medical field looks at the life-time earnings of medical doctors and concludes that, economically, it makes sense to invest so much money, time, and effort to become one. Compared with someone who simply works after high school and makes money, medical students not only forego income for all those years of studying, but actually spend much of their own money and a good part of their future incomes to get the education they want. However, to them the decision to go to medical school is economically sound. This speaks only of the financial aspects of the medical profession. I believe that a great majority of medical doctors and other health professionals choose their professions and invest time and money on them, not strictly for financial rewards, but for the opportunity to serve more effectively. I am sure they have examined their interests and talents and have concluded that the medical profession is the field wherein they can render the greatest or the most effective service.

We need to use a similar approach to maximize our life- time happiness. Our investment is mostly in the form of spending time and making an earnest effort to increase the positive elements of our happiness while reducing the negative ones. We need to be patient for the results of our efforts to bloom and bear fruit. After all, nothing is accomplished instantly. We all learned whatever we know gradually. We received a college degree after spending four years or about 8,000 hours studying. While we were going through this training, we had the patience and faith that we would eventually reach our goals. The same thing applies to acquiring happiness. We need to have faith that we will get it and be patient for it to arrive.

I am delighted to see many people taking steps in this direction, particularly with respect to their health. For example, to have longer, healthier lives, many people now refrain from smoking, drinking, eating foods with high cholesterol, and so on. In a sense, they sacrifice some instant pleasure in favor of a life- time, or at least long- time, health.

Going back to the Happinometry equation (H = J – F - E), it is clear that to increase H, we need to increase J and reduce F and E. The first step is to reduce F, or eliminate any physical problem we may have. That is, we need to be vigorous in maintaining, and to incorporate proper exercise in our busy work schedule, so that we can enjoy a completely healthy life.

Reduction of E, or the emotional elements of misery, may be harder than reducing F, in that it requires a change of attitude. The same thing is true for increasing J. There are many books written and seminars offered that have the primary concern of reducing E. The method employed in this site, is aimed at increasing J while at the same time reducing E. The chief suggestion herein is to foster love through the rendering of unconditional service. You will see that the actions we need to take to maximize happiness are different from the popular current strategies of maximizing income and wealth. They are also different from attempts to attain fame or secure higher political positions. I do not wish to discourage earning good money or seeking high political positions. If the unconditional service that we are engaged in brings us fame or wealth, so be it. The idea is to avoid becoming arrogant or proud because of that fame or wealth, and instead to use our status to render even more effective service. With happiness uppermost as a goal, there is no need to maintain other than a modest lifestyle while making every effort toward increasing the positive elements and reducing the negative aspects of our happiness.