The Dawn Treader

, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.

Not into making lists or random acts of kindness?  Greg Easterbrook, author of  The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse (Random House, 2004) offers this:

"Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes," according to Easterbrook. "If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus."

Ok.  So the answer to happiness is ... (drum roll) ... think happy thoughts.

Which begs the question ... if happiness is that easy, why do polls show that most Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life?

Easterbrook, also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute, goes back to Freud, who theorized that unhappiness is a default condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy.

"If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it," Easterbrook told LiveScience. "It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don't make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one."

The reason for unhappiness ... (drum roll) ... laziness.   In short, it is easier to be miserable than be happy.

Science has weighed in.  Now it is your turn to weigh in... what say you?