Yes, it’s official.  People with strong literacy skills are happier than those who struggle with reading.  But I didn’t have to tell you that, right?

A study by the National Literacy Trust shows that men and women alike are less likely to marry, less likely to own a home, more likely to live still with their parents and less likely to feel satisfied with life if they can’t read.

Of course, you always have to be careful, because statistics can say pretty much whatever you want.  Lower literacy means a lower paying job in most cases, which might in turn explain the findings.  Or lower levels of happiness in certain people might lead then to read less and learn less.  Cause and effect are not always easy to establish.

That being said, literacy facilitates so much that a focus on increasing a person’s literacy should help them in many facets of their lives, most likely also in their happiness (being able to read is very empowering), and having access to more information when one needs it reduces happiness-zapping frustration.

And if literacy in one language is empowering, what about literacy in several?  Yes, learn some more languages, and you’ll be surprised at the doors it opens up for you.

For those interested in reading the report in its entirety:
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/literacy_changes_lives.html

Today’s Los Angeles Times has a feature on happiness, my favorite topic.  The feature helps debunk a lot of myths, mostly that things and circumstances make us happy, sad, angry or whatever.  Here is the paragraph that most people should read:

Lyubomirsky and her colleagues analyzed studies on identical twins and other research and came to the conclusion that happiness is 50% genetic, 40% intentional and 10% circumstantial. “Half of your predisposition toward happiness you can’t change,” she says. “It’s in your genes. Your circumstances — where you live, your health, your work, your marriage — can be tough to change. But most people are surprised that circumstances don’t account for as much of their happiness as they think.”

Just for the record, there really is not an accurate way to measure happiness, because it is such a subjective issue.  However, a 50-50 divide between genetics and environment is generally considered a good rough estimate by most happiness researchers.  Depending on the effort you make or do not make, I am sure that number is very elastic, but let’s play with that number for now.  🙂

The L.A. Times feature continues on other pages, too.  For instance, there is an excellent list of handy tips for “cultivating happiness” .

Happy reading.

It’s all the rage these days: “narge”. What is narge? Well, it just happens to be how both many daughters pronounced “orange” for the first couple years of talking. (OK, one of them is still in those first couple years).

What is so hard about the word “orange”. Even when broken down repeatedly into three sounds – O RAN J – they still can’t pronounce it.

Don’t make assumptions about what anybody can or cannot do. What seems simple to one person might be beyond hope for others.

I do search engine optimization for a living. What do you mean you can’t do it? It’s easy. I’ll bet there are things you do daily that would send me into knots trying to figure out, too. It’s a good thing, too. After all, where would we be if all of us were experts at gardening and none of us were experts at plumbing?

 This inspiration was first published in A Daily Dose of Happiness two years ago.

Over at the Accumulating Peripherals blog, there is a discussion on the pros and cons of happiness research.  Matt offers explains his beef with happiness research and I have commented also on the discussion.

Much of the happiness research out there is based on self reporting.  In other words, it asks you if you feel happy.  OK, so the questions are more complex, but it basically asks for your opinion.  On the one hand, that is poor science, because our perceptions of things are rarely accurate.  A good example is how a couple high-profile crimes can get a city or even a whole country talking about how the crime rate is on the rise and it’s about time we stop the growing menace — even while statistics show that year after year the crime rate has slowly been declining.

On the other hand, happiness is a subjective thing.  It is something we feel, and it could be argued that the only valid measurement of happiness is our perception of it. How could one actually measure happiness empirically.  People try, of course, but what means happiness to one person is not completely the same thing that means happiness to the next person.  So can an objective measure be more accurate than a subjective measure?  Probably not.

Please feel free to go over to Matt’s blog and comment.  And then please come back here and comment, too.

There are some people who pooh pooh self-help books, and perhaps it is true that for them reading is not the ideal way to make improvements.  Perhaps some of them don’t think they need to improve, so I won’t argue with “perfect” people (Who could win an argument with a perfect person, anyway?)

I came across this interview with writer-director Judd Apatow, commenting on his first time as a producer and how he learned to manage teams:

The first job I had was creating The Ben Stiller Show.  I was 24 and had no idea what I was doing, so I read all these Stephen Covey books like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  They are actually really good!  I haven’t read them since, but I have to say, all the answers were in there.”

Just for the record, reading self-help books is not the best way to make a change in your life. Reading is only part of the equation. When we read, we get information. When we read, we get motivation. But all that is for naught if we don’t follow up what we read with action. Make a plan. Take one step at a time, and keep taking the next steps.

Reading self-help books is nt alone the way to improve your life. But they sure can help.

What do you think of those slick posters and coffee mugs with motivational messages on them? Good tools? Too commercial?

What about spirit bottles, filled with nothing but air and a small paper with a simple sentiment, such as “love deeply” or “hang in there”? They are less slick, more down-to-earth and less inspiring perhaps. There is a debate on this over at this self confidence blog.

I have a better suggestion. The best motivational message is the one you write to yourself. I am not saying you can’t buy motivation – every sports team, every movie set, every major company knows you can. But outsourcing your motivational messages is not as effective as writing yourself a personal note, one that means something – no, everything! – to you, and placing it where it is most relevant. Depending on the note, that might be in your car, beside your bathroom mirror or even in your toolshed.

No need to spend $20 on a slick motivational message laser targeted to just you and 100,000 people who are obviously exact replicas of you. Especially if your motivational message is about controling your spending. Write your own messages and place them where they count.

The following story is published with permission of Dick Warn.

With two runners on base, Sara Tucholsky (playing for Western Oregon University) hit her first home run ever. However, she passed first base without even touching it. When she realized her error she stopped, turned, and her knee gave out. Painfully she crawled back to first base.

If any coach, trainer or fellow team member were to touch her while she lay there she would be called out. When the umpire arrived, he said a pinch runner could be called in, but her homer would count as only a single, with two runs batted in.

Hearing what the umpire said, Central Washington’s first baseman asked, “Would it be okay if we (as she pointed to a team member) carried her and she touched each of the bags?”

Nothing in the rule book said that opposing players couldn’t. So, two of Central Washington’s players lifted Sara and carried her to second, third and home, allowing her to touch each base.

As they reached home plate, the odd looking trio was laughing, everyone in the stands was on their feet clapping, and the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.

Sara’s home run helped end Central Washington’s trip to their conference finals and their season was over.

Thinking back on what they had done, Liz Wallace, Central’s shortstop, said, “We didn’t know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run.”

And, Mallory Holtman, record-setting first baseman in her final year with Central’s team, said, “In the end, it is not about winning or losing. It is about this girl. She hit it over the fence and she was lying there in extreme pain. She deserved that home run.”

A couple weeks back, I wrote about aging gracefully.  Today I was reading an interview with William Shatner, and some of what he says resonates, so I thought I would share these three Q&As from the interview.

Q: Do you ever see yourself retiring?

A: Yes, as I slowly draw my last breath–not the shallow ones, where you’re panting and unconscious, but the deep one, where you say, “My God, I’m dying”–I’ll retire.

Q:It was your 77th birthday a few weeks ago.  How did you celebrate?

A: I took one jump in the air and realized I could still do it.

Q: What’s the best thing about getting older?

A: Marveling that the passion’s still there.  And the worst is discovering that on occasion, it’s not.

So keep that passion burning, and you need never grow old…at least not until it’s time to retire.  Then, you can start life all over again and follow a new passion if that’s what you would like.  Just like Shatner, you can explore new frontiers where no-one has gone before.