In my (limited, i'm only around 40 years on this planet) experience it's far from simple for people who don't want to know/learn. But I learned from my 94 year old grandfather who was not intelligent as in IQ but who knew how 'life' works and what is important and what not. People who know 'better' do usually (again, personal experience; it's easy to spot the sour people at a party) not achieve this happiness. It's quite easy for most people who just listen to older people.
The people who are truly not happy who I know personally almost all (2 exceptions) have a hangup about money; they want money to buy stuff. What stuff is unclear; once they get stuff (over the years), they usually don't do anything with it. Or if they do it didn't turn out the magic bullet they thought it was, which is of course the reason people don't buy it in the first place. It's like the 4 hour work week book; you can have your dream X TODAY but a lot of people will not do that because when they finally do their dream X it's very disappointing. And you didn't gain much happiness from it in the end.
The happiest people I know, who, I would say, scored a 10/10, are people who do not reason about their existence AND do what they like most all the time. My neighbor (who is a small goat herder) is 24/7 happy; I have only one creature who seems to have the same happiness and that's my little dog (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6134596/Screenshots/y835c9xw_lg~.png). I don't think people who meta-live in any way can do a 10/10 or would they want to; I think a part of happiness is misery but I don't know exactly how that works yet. Might be my Calvanistic-ish upbringing though. People (I like to think i'm one of them) who do 9/10 on the scale, in my experience, do what they like and work only as their hobby, never for money(I know at least 2 people who rather live under a bridge than do something which is not their passion, and they both have in the past, but now they are doing well). I have no exceptions in my circles to this. Again; might be who I attract or not.
I think if you accept 'how it works' from people who actually are what you want to be (and no, that doesn't mean millionaires in my eyes as that's the biggest let down on earth if it takes you, as it usually does, a lot of time to achieve and it's really not very interesting; it's nice, but not for the reasons you might think and I don't have anything I wouldn't be able to 'do' which contribute to my happiness level).
Also, to me, not native EN speaker, enjoyment != happiness. Enjoyment, if you would want it 24/7, is a heroine drip. If you manage to make it so you cannot meta-live then maybe that means happiness as well (I never tried), but if you have 1 moment to contemplate, your happiness is gone.
The people who are truly not happy who I know personally almost all (2 exceptions) have a hangup about money; they want money to buy stuff. What stuff is unclear; once they get stuff (over the years), they usually don't do anything with it. Or if they do it didn't turn out the magic bullet they thought it was, which is of course the reason people don't buy it in the first place. It's like the 4 hour work week book; you can have your dream X TODAY but a lot of people will not do that because when they finally do their dream X it's very disappointing. And you didn't gain much happiness from it in the end.
The happiest people I know, who, I would say, scored a 10/10, are people who do not reason about their existence AND do what they like most all the time. My neighbor (who is a small goat herder) is 24/7 happy; I have only one creature who seems to have the same happiness and that's my little dog (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6134596/Screenshots/y835c9xw_lg~.png). I don't think people who meta-live in any way can do a 10/10 or would they want to; I think a part of happiness is misery but I don't know exactly how that works yet. Might be my Calvanistic-ish upbringing though. People (I like to think i'm one of them) who do 9/10 on the scale, in my experience, do what they like and work only as their hobby, never for money(I know at least 2 people who rather live under a bridge than do something which is not their passion, and they both have in the past, but now they are doing well). I have no exceptions in my circles to this. Again; might be who I attract or not.
I think if you accept 'how it works' from people who actually are what you want to be (and no, that doesn't mean millionaires in my eyes as that's the biggest let down on earth if it takes you, as it usually does, a lot of time to achieve and it's really not very interesting; it's nice, but not for the reasons you might think and I don't have anything I wouldn't be able to 'do' which contribute to my happiness level).
Also, to me, not native EN speaker, enjoyment != happiness. Enjoyment, if you would want it 24/7, is a heroine drip. If you manage to make it so you cannot meta-live then maybe that means happiness as well (I never tried), but if you have 1 moment to contemplate, your happiness is gone.