Something that I found over a year ago and re-read today, something that seems fascinatingly simple and maybe even a little bit jarring in how easy it is to assess this massive question is, a life satisfaction one-minute quiz.
It’s below.
Source: Kobau, R., Sniezek, J., Zack, M. M., Lucas, R. E., & Burns, A. (2010). Well‐being assessment: An evaluation of well‐being scales for public health and population estimates of well‐being among US adults. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being, 2(3), 272-297. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01035.x
Are you satisfied with your life?
‘Below are five statements that you may agree or disagree with. Using the 1 – 7 scale below, indicate your agreement with each item by placing the appropriate number on the line preceding that item. Please be open and honest in your responding.
- 7 – Strongly agree
- 6 – Agree
- 5 – Slightly agree
- 4 – Neither agree nor disagree
- 3 – Slightly disagree
- 2 – Disagree
- 1 – Strongly disagree
___ In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
___ The conditions of my life are excellent.
___ I am satisfied with my life.
___ So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
___ If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.
Scoring
Total the above. Here’s how you score..
-
-
- 31 – 35 Extremely satisfied
- 26 – 30 Satisfied
- 21 – 25 Slightly satisfied
- 20 Neutral
- 15 – 19 Slightly dissatisfied
- 10 – 14 Dissatisfied
- 5 – 9 Extremely dissatisfied
-
There is a page where you can interpret these results more fully, too.
And if you do, it says,
‘There is no one key to life satisfaction, but rather a recipe that includes a number of ingredients. With time and persistent work, people’s life satisfaction usually goes up when they are dissatisfied. People who have had a loss recover over time. People who have a dissatisfying relationship or work often make changes over time… One key ingredient to happiness… is social relationships, and another… is to have important goals that derive from one’s values, and to make progress toward those goals.
‘For many people it is important to feel a connection to something larger than oneself. When a person tends to be chronically dissatisfied, they should look within themselves and ask whether they need to develop more positive attitudes to life and the world.’
Life satisfaction. Popular topic, trendy. But what’s going on under the hood us so personal for each of us, it’s important, I feel to ask ourselves, ‘How are you doing?’ Just a thought. This post has motivational video on ‘success’, tangentially related.