From article:

“When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, it is best to pay attention. Their answers are reliable,” said Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. “This suggests that life-satisfaction survey data might be very useful for governments to use in the design of economic and social policies,” Oswald said.

The happy-states list, however, doesn’t match up with a similar ranking reported last month, which found that the most tolerant and wealthiest states were, on average, the happiest. Oswald says this past is based on raw averages of people’s happiness in a state, and so doesn’t provide meaningful results.

It is all starting to sound like wild guessing isn’t it?

Life is set up to take us out our comfort zones over and over again — and for the simple reason that no growth ever takes place inside a comfort zone. For many, taking accountability for their own choice to be happy is the most uncomfortable of all. But allowing others (and ourselves) freedom to be free from their (and our) past by forgiving and letting go, by choosing to never judge another as a finished product that can be finally judged before life is finished promotes the freedom to be as one chooses in the present moment of choice. It really is that simple within the full complexity of a mortal life.

Yes, it’s ultimately very simple, but it is never simplistic. Many folks in the throes of mortality don’t even know that such a decision is possible.