The Connection Between Happiness and CliftonStrengths© Themes

Positive Psychology has taken off over the past few decades, largely because it focuses on an idea we all care about — happiness. Until studying Positive Psychology, happiness was a vague concept and one that eluded me. I had preconceived notions that happy people were the ones who were always smiling and giddy — two traits that would not describe me. Therefore, I must not be happy.

But it turns out, I was wrong. Positive psychology helped expand my understanding of happiness to include other qualities: serenity, sense of fulfillment, and curiosity to name a few. While I couldn’t relate to smiling and giddiness, I could certainly relate to these three. It wasn’t long before I realized that I wasn’t unhappy — I might actually be one of the happiest people I know.

The Formula for Happiness

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a leading researcher in Positive Psychology and author of The How of Happiness, offers an interesting breakdown of happiness. She calls it the happiness pie. Like any pie, this one is divided into slices, each representing a different factor contributing to our overall happiness.

She has a formula for this: H = S + C + V.

In this happiness pie, there are three slices: Set Point (S), Circumstances ©, and Volitional Activities (V). The size of each slice represents its contribution to our overall Happiness (H).

• Set Point (S): 50% of your happiness: This is your biological baseline, determined by genetics. It’s the degree to which your individual biology influences your outlook on life.
• Circumstances ©: 10% of your happiness: Surprisingly, only a small portion of happiness comes from life circumstances. That means things like where you were born, your socio-economic status, and other life conditions. I would’ve guessed this would take up a bigger slice of the pie, but it’s just 10%.
• Volitional Activities (V): 40% of your happiness: This is where we have the most control. It represents the choices you make about your career, relationships, hobbies, and other aspects of your life. This significant portion is where we can really make a difference in our overall happiness.

How Your Choices Shape Happiness

We can’t do much about the first two slices — Set Point and Circumstances. But we can absolutely impact the 40% slice, and that’s where your CliftonStrengths© themes come into play. Understanding your natural strengths helps you make better choices in your career, relationships, and day-to-day activities.

Imagine two people:

1. Someone with perfect brain chemistry and ideal life circumstances. Let’s say they score a full 50 out of 50 on the happiness set point and 10 out of 10 on life circumstances. But here’s the catch — they lack self-awareness and make poor choices when it comes to career, relationships, and other activities (0 out of 40). That puts their happiness score at 60 out of 100.
2. Then there’s someone with average brain chemistry (25 out of 50) and so-so life circumstances (5 out of 10). But they’ve nailed their choices — they’re working in a job that fits them, they’re surrounded by meaningful relationships, and they spend their time on activities that align with who they are (40 out of 40). Their happiness score? 70 out of 100. They’re happier than the first person, despite having fewer ideal conditions.

The difference lies in something called Individual-Environment Fit (IEF) — shaping your environment to fit your unique qualities. This is where the CliftonStrengths© becomes a powerful tool. It helps you identify your naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior — what we call themes.

By focusing on a person’s unique qualities and then shaping that person’s environment to be a solid fit, we can greatly increase the overall happiness pie for ourselves and others. I find this incredibly insightful and empowering.

Themes and Happiness

Knowing your themes is like unlocking a secret code to what makes you happy. CliftonStrengths© isn’t just a tool for work — it’s a key to understanding how you relate to the world.

Once you understand your themes, you can make better choices in the areas of life you can control — the 40%. This leads to more alignment and less contrast. Every activity you engage in represents a degree of match or mismatch with your themes. Without knowing your themes, it’s hard to figure out where these matches and mismatches are. But once you’re clear on them, it becomes a lot easier to design a life that fits you.

For example, someone with high Empathy and Relator themes might thrive in roles that require building deep connections with people, like counseling or teaching. On the other hand, someone with Strategic and Achiever themes might find greater happiness in roles where they can solve problems and push toward goals. Each choice can either bring you closer to alignment or create more contrast.

Wrap-Up: Building a Happier Life Through Strengths

In the end, understanding your unique strengths is key to creating a life that fosters happiness. While some factors of the happiness equation are out of your control, the choices you make about your career, relationships, and daily activities are in your control and are a big factor in how happy you are. By identifying and embracing your themes, you can reduce contrast, increase alignment, and ultimately create a life that brings greater fulfillment and well-being.

At Positive Leadership, we help people understand their unique themes and use that knowledge to make smarter choices in their careers, relationships, and daily activities. By identifying what makes you tick and guiding you to create more alignment in your life, we can help you increase that happiness pie.