The Happiness Factor

How do you measure happiness? Michelle Bong talks to Singaporeans who are supposed to be the second most unhappy people in this part of the world!

Singaporeans were recently proclaimed to be a happy lot, based on a quality of life survey conducted by a Japanese university across seven East Asian economies including China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan.

The Little Red Dot topped the survey’s Happy Index, with an impressive 70 per cent of Singaporeans proclaiming they were happy. Vietnam and Japan were second and third with 64 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. Asian women, then, by sheer mathematical conclusion, are generally half happy, with Singaporean women being the happiest of them.

Happiness, it was explained, was measured according to factors such as standard of living, family life and their job. 76 per cent of Singaporeans were satisfied with their standard of living, 92 per cent expressed contentment about family life while about 70 per cent said they were satisfied with their jobs.

The results of the survey struck me as ironic, after I took a closer look at the data and found that the survey was carried out in 2006. That was a whole three years before the great US market collapse that took the rest of the world with it.

In actual fact, Singaporeans are the second most unhappy people in the ASEAN region, says a 2009 Global Happy Index 2.0 conducted by London-based The New Economics Foundation (NEF). Singapore was pipped to last position by Cambodia by just 5.9 points, and for the record the happiest Asians were the Vietnamese followed by the Filippinos and the Indonesians.

Soon after, I came across an article by American blogger Gretchen Rubin and author of The Happy Project about why women today are unhappy. Among reasons given were their tendency to watch too much TV (as opposed to going out and doing volunteer work, for instance); failing to maintain good relationships with others;  not controlling their stress levels and constantly seeking pleasure by way of purchases.

It got my asking myself about my personal happiness index, and I hope this article will do the same for you. Meanwhile, be inspired by women elsewhere in this island who shared with me the different simple paths towards happiness that they take on a daily basis.

“I refuse to take work-related calls after 6.30pm and make it a point to switch off my BlackBerry.” – Serene Long, writer

“I choose to work shorter hours a day, so I can have dinner with my kids and then put them to bed.” – Mavis  Chan, marketing manager

“I feel left behind, not having been in the workforce for four years now, to be a stay-home mum. But I wouldn’t change anything.” – Clare Mok, homemaker

“When I think about buying another pair of heels, I remind myself that the money can be donated to help the less fortunate.” – Sim Lee Lian, production assistant

“I realise that at the end of the day, a life well-lived is not about the size of my bank account.” – Jane Lim, sales assistant