When you look at a restaurant bill, you can eye the total due or you can focus on each item listed. Life is the same way. You can think in terms of the totality of what you have accomplished, or you can think in terms of the momentary episodes of your life. Adopt the focus that makes you feel more satisfied. If you think things turned out all right even though there were bumps in the road, think big picture. If you're not sure how it will turn out but you know that your life has been marked with moments of great happiness and pleasure, then focus on the details.
It's Saturday afternoon, and two men who live next door to each other in older homes of about the same size and condition are in their backyards. One is swinging in a hammock. The other is sweating in the sun, painting his fence. The man in the hammock is happy and comfortable knowing that his house will stand for many, many years, offering him and his family shelter.
His neighbor is happy, too, because he is thinking about how sharp the fence will look with a little paint, and he takes satisfaction from how good the backdoor looks that he painted last week. One is taking comfort in the big picture, the other in the details. The important thing is that they find satisfaction.
Researchers find that it is not more typical to experience happiness as following from events or to experience our perspective on events as flowing from happiness; both patterns are prevalent.
Scherpenzeel and Saris 1996
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