The director of my program in Finland shared this with us and I thought it was super interesting!
"My patriotic ramblings: Finland is the WORLD’S HAPPIEST COUNTRY again... for the FIFTH YEAR in a row! We don't look or act particularly effervescent - the above picture is pretty accurate Yet according to essays written about Finland and its elusive happiness, our unapologetically pragmatic nature might have something to do with our level of contentedness. In fact, probably on a daily basis we find a plethora of things to complain about: school food is bland, there are too many traffic accidents, the nearest green space is too far, we need more business (start-up) incubators, there are too many preservatives in our food, our congressmen and women don't listen to us as much as they should... and it doesn't matter if those congressmen or women are from the party we voted for or not.
Here's the secret sauce: it's because we don't expect to be terribly happy, or even terribly successful -the next millionaire level successful.. although we have our fair share of them too, think NOKIA, Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Linux, Fiskars etc.- that we end up being happier. It's important to note that Finland leads the statistics in many of the following fields: It is one of the best countries to go to school, be a mother, start a business, make money, drink clean water, be a pedestrian, find a green space to exercise in, read the news and start a heavy metal band We succeed because we complain (we think those make the best kinds of patriots) and we are content because in the end the system we have created together serves us preeeetty well."- Aino Larsen