the painful truth about happiness

According to the article by Ellen de Bruin 50% of whether or not we are happy is decided genetically. It's just who we are, nothing we can do about it. 40% is circumstances, but everything we achieve in our circumstances, we get used to. And we sink back to our basic level of happiness. Hence the treadmill. We really only are in charge of the last 10%. With the last 10% we can kick our own butts. Here's a big version of the picture.