Factors of happiness

8. Hobbies: the things that we're passionate about

Hobbies are my 8th biggest happiness factor. What are my hobbies?

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  Playing music.
  
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  Playing videogames.
  
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  Skateboarding.
  
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  Working on Tracking Happiness (hey, that's this website!)
  

These are the things that I do in my "downtime". These allow me to relax, chill and decompress. That's why my hobbies are one of my biggest factors of happiness. For example, music alone has influenced my happiness on 161 days within the last 3,085 days!
Having a hobby to fall back on has a great influence on my happiness!

9. Traveling: going beyond your comfort zone

During the last 10 years, I've found out that traveling is something I really enjoy (like every millennial!)
My point is, that traveling provides me with a feeling of excitement that I can't really find anywhere else. It's the perfect way to discover new things in life that interest me. Things that I would have never found otherwise.
Here's a picture of me during my latest trip to the beautiful Azores. That smile probably explains why traveling is part of my top 10 biggest factors of happiness.

10. Health: feeling fit and healthy

This last happiness factor is quite important to mention. Within the 3,085 days that I've analyzed here, there have been 119 days in which I felt sick, feverish or unhealthy. That's about 4% of the time.
I want to state here that I feel really lucky to be in relatively good health. I have never been very sick, and apart from a few fractured bones, I've always been physically healthy.
I understand that for some people, health is a much bigger happiness factor. The thing is, this is just my own personal top 10 factors of happiness. It's clear that a person who experiences a severe disability or disease, health can be ranked much higher in the list of happiness factors.

What makes a factor of happiness?

The answer to this question is really simple. A happiness factor can be anything that has a significant influence on your happiness.
Allow me to explain:
If I go to work and I have a terrible day and it stresses me out, then my work is a happiness factor. A happiness factor is something that happens to you that significantly influences your happiness on a given day. This could be an activity (like work, or running), an event (like a party or Christmas) or a feeling (like feeling inspired or restless).
This means there is a practically endless list of factors that could influence your happiness. And this list obviously differs for every person out there!