On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Would You Rate Your Life?

Yesterday I was bored waiting for my tires to be balanced & rotated at Costco, so to kill some time I decided to run a little social experiment that I had been meaning to do for a while. The experiment consisted of asking a single question, which I texted to almost everyone in my cell phone. The question was this:

Think- If you had to rate your life right now on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the WORST imaginable and 10 being the BEST, what would it be? Text me back -BD

Before I sent it out, I decided that my own answer would be a “7″ …pretty darn good, but not so much that it can’t improve in certain areas. In my mind, a “1″ would be defined as ultimate low, where life just could not possibly get any worse, save for death. I picture someone with absolutely no family, no friends, no hobbies, no hope for the future & some type of terminal illness. On the other hand, I would imagine a “10″ being the ultimate perfect life, where nothing goes wrong, there are no regrets and no limitations. Both scenarios I would expect to be essentially impossible, but, hey, you never know. I was curious therefore, to see where other people would place their lives on a scale from 1-10. And so I sent the text to around 108 people. Of those, 62 responded back. Here is a histogram of the results, showing the number of responses for each category:

This survey turned out to be really interesting. Six people responded with a 10, while two responded with a 1. The mean and median were both 7, but the most popular response was 8.

The best part about this survey though, were the responses I got from the people who answered with 9s or 10s. My favorites are below. I found them really encouraging, so I thought I’d share (anonymously, of course):

It’s got to be a 10, i’m in full time service which brings the greatest joy, the happiness of giving, i just saw Gilead intros, and as one of the students put it “happiness isn’t the destination but rather the journey.” so yah i’d say life is good.

It would be a ten… the reason i say it, although i pass through hard times. I love jehovah and that makes my life great!

10… Haha I got baptized yesterday so how can I not be good right now?!

9 i have my issues and complaints were not perfect but We make the best of everything. the fact that we know the truth makes our lives awesome

Hmm, I think I notice a common theme! Obviously, my idea of a 10 being 100% perfection was a little different from how they responded, but neither is right or wrong, the question was subjective. It is very clear though that being in the truth definitely notches up one’s life rating! It really helps you see what’s really important in the end.

I do wonder though, what it would take to bump up your rating one point. For example, what would one need to do to go from a 6 to a 7? Or from a 7 to an 8? I also wonder how one’s response would change over time, since it’s really dependent on current circumstances which constantly fluctuate. I want to try to ask this again, say, a year from now & see what differences there are.

Overall though, I gotta say, I must have some pretty happy friends! =D