Real Happiness or Perceived Happiness?

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Austin where we attended a friend’s wedding. Not to get off track, but if you haven’t been to Austin and you enjoy music, people watching, and the outdoors, then it’s a destination you really must consider.

At any rate, my wife and I were talking about how we’d love to live in Austin again (it’s where we went to college, and where we met). There are many features that appeal to us. We both still have a lot of friends down there which is a big plus. Because Austin is known for being more environmentally and socially conscious, we feel the city and the people are more aligned with our values. Bike lanes are everywhere, which is really cool in my opinion. There are also a lot of music, cultural and community festivals that you don’t get in a lot of other cities. Not to mention the small matter of our UT football season tickets (Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of my zeal, I’m already starting to watch old games from last season and we’re still 2 months away from the first game). The immediate downside to Austin is the housing prices which are probably the highest in Texas (more than likely still cheap compared the east and west coasts). There really aren’t any other negatives.

However, I brought up the point, would we really be happier down there, or is this happiness a perceived one only? My wife and I agreed that we probably would not be happier per se, but there is a lot to be said for your social surroundings.

I then applied this thought process to our upcoming move (we are trying to sell our house and move into a house with a lower payment that is closer to downtown Fort Worth), and whether it is real happiness or perceived happiness that is driving us to a particular location. We certainly feel that moving to a more centrally located area will make us happier. For me, it’ll make me happy because of the financial ramifications - i.e. saving money, getting out of debt, etc. It’ll also make me happy when I don’t have to drive as far for work, to meet with friends downtown or for my soccer games. For my wife, I know it’ll make her happy to cut her commute down from about an hour, to 15 minutes. I think she’ll also enjoy not driving towards downtown for entertainment. We’d also be very close to bike trails, musuems, and parks.

For these reasons, I think moving to central Fort Worth would bring us real happiness. The largest downside of moving into Fort Worth from Keller (where we currently live) would be that Keller ISD has a very good reputation, and it is a safe community in which to raise a family. And while these factors are important, we don’t necessarily feel as though it is worth all of the sacrifices we are making to live so far from town.

After thinking about this all weekend applying these ideas of happiness both to our current situation and possible future moves, my conclusion is that moving to Austin in and of itself may only bring us perceived happiness, but if we were able to find good jobs (or, hopefully, work for ourselves) and we lived centrally, it may in fact bring real happiness.

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