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The Four Levels of Happiness^®

Happiness is the only goal that people pursue for its own sake, which makes it an ideal lens for explaining why people and organizations behave as they do. The Four Levels of Happiness model shows leaders how to elevate the powerful drive for happiness and direct it toward shared goals, strong ethics, and great performance. Click here for a full description of the Four Levels.

 

 

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The Four Levels of Christmas

One of the nicest presents I ever received was a block of wood, which was given to me by my son John-Henry five Christmases ago when he was 12. He took half a log from our wood pile, painted it red and green, and hammered in three nails. The nails were designed to hold small plastic cards numbered 0 through nine, which he dutifully changed every day to display a count between one and 364. This homemade “Christmas Countdown Calendar” reflected my son’s awareness that his dad’s entire year revolved around this particular holiday.

I am certainly not alone in being excessively fond of Christmas. The American economy long ago realized there were millions of people like me, which is why you find Christmas shops in locales that cater to summer vacationers. Yule addicts flock to these stores like caravans stopping by an oasis, thirsting for a sip of Noel to sustain them on their trek through the non-Christmas season.

As a Michigander, I’m blessed to live a mere hour’s drive from Bronner’s, a Christmas store that is roughly the size of Liechtenstein. My family enjoys our annual Bronner’s pilgrimage – and I honor them with that term because they honor the holiday by spelling it “CHRISTmas.”  Typographically, it’s a bit awkward, but I find it a blessed relief from formulations like Xmas, Winter Holiday, and “Sparkle Season.”

Until recently, if you asked me why I loved Christmas so much, I’d have listed things I look forward to. I love the decorations, lights, and ornaments that return every year like old friends. I love the merrymaking and special tastes that are reserved for this season alone. I love finding gifts that elicit grins of surprise and delight from my family, and I love the glorious music and carols that make me feel I have something in common with angels.
 
It occurred to me only this year that these particulars add up to something exceedingly rare. That something is best observed looking through the prism of Fr. Spitzer’s Four Levels of Happiness.™

A glimpse of all-encompassing satisfaction

The Four Levels provide a useful reminder that happiness has a hierarchy. Pleasure is nice, but not as nice as personal achievement, which is less pervasive, enduring, and deep than the gratification that comes from helping others. Above it all lies the ultimate fulfillment that is, quite literally, divine.

Well, So That Is That Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes – Some have gotten broken – and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school. There are enough Left-overs to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week – Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot, Stayed up so late, attempted – quite unsuccessfully – To love all our relatives, and in general Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed To do more than entertain it as an agreeable Possibility, once again we have sent Him away Begging though to remain His disobedient servant, The promising child who could not keep His word for long. – W.H. Auden

While this hierarchical nature means certain joys are better than others, they are all inherently good, and it is inherently human to want and seek them all.  In a perfect world, we would have them all, and descriptions of Heaven suggest that this is precisely what God has prepared for those who love Him. But on this side of Heaven, it’s very rare to find moments of all-encompassing satisfaction.

What’s rare about Christmas is that it provides a glimpse – and sometimes, a taste – of four-level happiness. At no other time of year do all of our yearnings find such a well-marked path to fulfillment.

I realize, of course, how often we are deprived or deprive ourselves of the season’s potential. There’s a poem by W.H. Auden (see box) that captures our propensity to stumble along the path that Christmas provides.

Auden’s verse reflects my own frequent failure to realize the season’s potential, but these failings haven’t dimmed my love of the day or made me anticipate it less eagerly. I know the Four Levels of Christmas are there for the taking every year, a sign and foretaste of the Eternal Promise born on that day.

– John Keenan, Editor

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Last changed: Nov 05 2011 at 4:41 PM