5 on Friday -- Set 264 -- International Day of Happiness Edition

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

Today is the International Day of Happiness.

This is only the third annual celebration of this initiative, which seeks to balance the persistent drive to measure a nation's or a people's success in terms of economic output, with its citizens' sense of wellbeing.

One could be extremely jaded and point to a deep savings in national spending for such a measurement. After all, when a population is unhappy, there is more individual use of alcohol and recreational drugs, more medical costs to treat addiction and its ripple effects, more lost days at work, and if the unrest is at high levels, more risk for riots, which adds to spending on police forces and infrastructure rebuilding.

I feel that the International Day of Happiness is a combination of those factors as well as the real desire for nations to recognize that higher individual happiness leads to a higher-performing nation, overall.

You may have encountered this line of thinking in the corporate world already. A happier workforce, as it turns out, is far more energized and of course profitable.

  

This year, the Day of Happiness is looking to build "the world's happiest playlist". Here is my 5 on Friday contribution. All of the tracks remind me of a time in my life when things were hopeful, even when there were mountain-sized obstacles to climb.

1 - Quantum Utopia - Goran Bregovic featuring Eugene Hutz 

2 - All This Time - Sting 

3 - E=MC2 - Big Audio Dynamite 

4 - Temptation Waits - Garbage

5 - Bliss - Muse