If you follow my Instagram or Twitter accounts, you will know that I use #HardcoreHappiness as a tag to organize my posts and those of like-minded others. Happiness is obviously desirable, but why “hardcore”?

There is research that suggests that a great deal of a person’s capacity for happiness is genetic. You could take that as evidence that you either have the “happiness gene” or you don’t.

But there are two major problems with the research on happiness. These issues are more epistemological than procedural.

Measuring Happiness

The first obstacle is the definition of “happiness.” In many ways, the definition of happiness is as problematic as the definition of “love.” It’s like trying to describe “green” to a person who has never had sight.

Happiness is an intensely subjective term, and can vary dramatically from person to person. Moreover, happiness can change dramatically in the same person. What made you happy last year may not make you happy today.

So we try to invent an operational definition (one that has objectively measurable factors) for happiness so we can measure it in our research labs. But there is no specific, objective biomarker for happiness.

If we study stress, which also seems to be a subjective emotion, we can measure serum cortisol levels to get an accurate indication of the amount of stress an individual experiences. If you have emphysema, we can look at your arterial oxygen and carbon dioxide levels to determine the course of the disease.

So we behavioral scientists get together and try to come up with short descriptions of what happiness might entail, and we ask you to rate them. Then we can measure how many times you agree or disagree, for instance, with the statements and come up with some statistics.

Which brings us to the second obstacle.

If we want to see if you have a bladder infection, we look for white blood cells in your urine. If we suspect you may be pregnant, we test for the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in your blood. You don’t have to ponder over these measurements, they are there (or not) whether you think about them (or not).

The evaluations for happiness, on the other hand, are self report questionnaires. This means you have to decide – in the moment – how you feel about each description statement. Which were our best guesses, and may not relate to you very well, so you are guessing about our guesses.

Then we do some math and decide if you are happy, and if so, how happy.

This is a blog article and not a research course, so my description is simplified. I don’t mean to disparage behavioral research by any means. But there is is no randomized double-blind study (the gold standard for research) possible for something like happiness.

My point here is to show why these studies should be taken with hefty doses of statistical salt. Certainly their findings are not reason for you to give up on your own happiness because you believe you don’t have the “happiness gene.”

The Shortest Line

Let’s say, for a moment, that all of the foregoing has been solved and we really could measure exactly how much of your happiness (which we have now been able to perfectly operationalize and measure) is determined by your DNA.

Maybe you are fortunate enough to have a happiness genotype (the way your genes are arranged) that has expressed itself in a phenotype (the way you came out, physically) of extreme happiness. You are one very happy person.

Or maybe you didn’t win the genetic lottery for happiness, and our analysis shows that you are destined to be less happy than the average person.

It doesn’t matter.

A friend, mentor and one-time boss once told me something that has stuck with me ever since. He said, “The line of people who don’t want more money is the shortest line in the world.”

As the years have passed, I have come to think that might be the second shortest line.

The shortest line is the line of people who don’t want more happiness.

The point is this: No matter what your baseline, biological level of happiness, everyone wants more happiness in life.

But before we can talk about how to get more happiness, we have to make a distinction.

Which Happiness?

Hedonic happiness is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This kind of happiness is situational and fleeting and happens at parties and on vacations and the like. It typically comes with an emotional crash of varying intensity after the fun.

I explained the neuropsychology of this in a recent newsletter. (If you aren’t a subscriber, let me know and I’ll send you a copy. But be a subscriber – it’s free!) The bigger the fun, the bigger the crash. This is due to a measurable change in your brain chemicals.

Hedonic happiness is not resilient to tragedy, and is not long-lasting, for many reasons. By all means, enjoy it whenever it comes. Realize it is not predictable or sustainable, and therefore is not a life goal.

Eudaimonic happiness is the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes when you live in accordance with your purpose. This kind of happiness includes psychological well-being and is not dependent upon a certain situation.

The big difference is that you create eudaimonic happiness, you don’t merely hope that it happens. It is a result of lifestyle choices, not occasional situations, and doesn’t involve emotional crashes.

Eudaimonic happiness is a life goal. More than that, it is the only life goal worth your pursuit. It actually grows stronger with hardship and makes you more resilient.

When life goes sideways – which it will – eudaimonic happiness will keep you from being completely crushed.

Life is tragic. To sustain a state of happiness and well-being, you must understand the components of long-lasting happiness and then fight for it. Suffering is an unavoidable part of the human condition. You must be able to use suffering to power your quest for happiness.

So hedonic happiness isn’t bad, it’s just not dependable and doesn’t last very long. And it doesn’t really do anything for you in the long run. The upside is that the happiness “hit” feels good and doesn’t take much work.

When I speak of “hardcore happiness,” I’m taking about eudaimonic happiness. It increases your subjective well-being in the long term and can literally save your life in many ways. And it is a hell of a lot of work.

But why “hardcore”?

Hardcore Happiness

Consider two people that you probably know.

Person One works at whatever job pays the most for the least effort and “lives for the weekend.” There is a good chance that Person One did a brief stint of training, if any, for the job that has essentially been the same since high school.

This person binges some version of Netflix and Doritos after work and is continually in search of the next “good time.” Said “good time” most likely involves alcohol and/or recreational drug use. (BTW, I hate that artificial distinction: alcohol is a recreational drug.)

Person Two spent a considerable amount of time after high school learning a trade or getting a degree or apprenticing in a career of personal interest. People in the “Person Two” profile are passionate about their work, and while they love a fun weekend as much as the next person, they don’t share the same dread of Mondays.

Person Two finds a way to work in regular exercise and would rather read than watch TV on most occasions. Folks in the Person Two column have either not been interested in recreational substances, or have learned that too much of that stuff gets in the way of their well-being.

Go ahead; picture someone you know in each of these categories, then take this little quiz:

Which type of person

• Is more physically healthy?
• Complains less?
• Has a more positive overall outlook?
• Tolerates crappy days and tragic events better?
• Is on more meds?
• Is making progress towards more interesting job responsibilities?
• Looks forward to getting on with the day’s events?
• Is more satisfied with life?
• Enjoys greater long-term happiness?

There are individual differences of course, but on average, Person Two is happier and having an easier time in the negotiation of life.

And Person Two has less chance of chronic illness and mental health disorders, more friends and a significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality.

You can be Person Two, no matter which type you most closely resemble today. The difference?

Person Two has done the hard work.

To achieve eudaimonic happiness you have to be hardcore about the pursuit of work that you find to be satisfying and meaningful, even if it you have to put in long hours to get there. Even if it pays less, in the beginning.

You have to be relentless in the care of your mind and body, even when inertia and your “friends” want you to take the easy road.

Learn to say, “No.”

Learn to let the heartbreak of life’s tragedies become fuel for the fire of your hardcore happiness warrior spirit.

And then you become emotionally invincible.

Because you don’t depend on anyone or anything else to keep you afloat in the storms.

The vast majority of my blog articles and newsletters and books and videos and podcasts all deal with the details of how to attain hardcore happiness. There are specific, evidence-based actions you can take to gain eudaimonic happiness and well-being. At this moment, however, you have only one decision to make:

Who do you want to be?

Decide to be a happier person. Commit to the work. Adopt a hardcore happiness attitude.

And reap the benefits.

As always, I welcome your thoughts. You can reach me through the comments section on my Substack or Medium accounts or the blog section on my website. If this article as of value to you, please follow my Instagram and Twitter accounts. And be sure to subscribe to my River Of Creation podcast – The Podcast for Creators! – coming later this year.

Be well; do good!

• JWW