Beer Sales are Up and Here's Where to Go for Happiness

True or False: Beer sales around the world added up to $50 billion last year. Answer: False. It’s actually double that amount.

Why is this important? It’s actually not. It’s slightly interesting, just like the answer to “Which age group is more likely to be surfing the ‘net right now?” Answer: There are nearly twice as many people online over 50-years-old than there are under 18.  (Ha Ha, I bet you got that wrong.)

And here’s another one I can’t resist. People over 65 spend nearly twice as much time on the web as those under 18, proving, obviously, that many old people are doing more than buying stuff on Amazon.

Enough. This blog post is about where to go for happiness. We figure if you can get away from work for a sabbatical, you just might want to learn a little about the state of happiness … so you can bring it back to your life, when you return from your break.

For those in the US, if you want to go where people consider themselves the happiest, and, say you live in Texas, well – just cross the border. People in Mexico (34%) are in the #1 spot. They have good reason, I guess, since 50% of them are very satisfied with their sex lives. (Okay, I did not want to go here but you deserve the Total Picture.)

If you live in Maine, you can cross the border into Canada. That country is in the #5 spot, with 20% of the people considering happiness theirs. (I don’t know about their sex lives.)

After Mexico and Canada, you’ll need to check the balance on your AmEx to get to the happiest places. Thailand (#2), Vietnam (#3), Colombia (#4), Venezuela (#6) and India (#7) are all a mighty jaunt away. So what might you learn jostling to and fro on the top of an elephant in Thailand or dishing with the indigenous Warao Indians, known as the ‘canoe people’ on the banks of the Delta del Orinoco in Venezuela? Hard to tell.

When it comes to the dilemma between work and life, which is what many of us moan about, we should get used to being perpetually adrift. People often use sabbaticals just to find their rudder again, not to do a 180 with their lives. Even though 53% of the people around the world say they would rather work less and earn less in order to have a happy, stress-free, fulfilling life, I’m not sure that gives us the definitive answer. Seems to me, I’ve worked less and earned less in certain periods of my life and didn’t get very close to happiness at all. And then there are the stilettos-to-the-walls time in my life where all I did was work and make money! And I approached ecstasy.

But, you see, it’s the long haul we have to worry about, and that’s about time. Time to do what we want to do – work and play – in the time we have (which is the one damned thing we can’t control).

So what about the rest of the countries where people are the happiest? In order, beginning with #8 are: Denmark(19%); Pakistan (19%); Norway(17%); Brazil((16%); Sweden (15%); New Zealand (15%); and the United States (13%). So go visit, if you want, and let us know what you learn. (Resource for all statistics in this post are from www.nielsen.com as reported in The New York Times Sports Magazine, August, 2008.)

Be careful where you go though. The global average for happiness is 12%. Sigh….

Imagine. You could end up somewhere where your current state of happiness would be way-over-the-top compared to those around you. Even your rudderless, stressful, stuggling, harried, unbalanced life would pale in comparison.

Today’s post isn’t meant to be lacking in empathy; it’s to jar you out of your small world to see possibilities for new perspectives and surroundings. How’d I do?