The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - This Way to Happiness (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_758)

00:00:00.000 I recently had the great classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson on my YouTube show

00:00:08.700 The Sad Truth. Victor ended our conversation with the following, it's so nice to see an academic

00:00:15.060 who smiles. I don't do it enough, but you do. His comment moved me deeply. Sure, my positive

00:00:21.900 demeanor is partly my nature, but like everyone else, I've had my share of misfortune and

00:00:28.240 disappointment. I grew up literally in the middle of a war zone in Beirut, Lebanon. I had a promising

00:00:34.680 future as a soccer player kicked out from under me by a devastating injury. I've lost coveted

00:00:41.520 teaching positions because of my iconoclastic political views. The list of personal setbacks

00:00:47.500 is very long, so I'm sure it's yours. That's just the way it is, and we all know it. But I refuse to

00:00:54.880 let life beat me down. I don't want to be unhappy for five minutes longer than necessary. Life is too

00:01:00.880 precious and too short. To that end, I've given the subject of happiness a lot of thought. Here are

00:01:07.760 seven ways to maximize your happiness. One, find the right spouse. The most important person in life

00:01:15.700 is your spouse, so choose wisely. He or she is also the person you are going to spend the most time with.

00:01:22.820 This is why liking your spouse is even more important than loving them, although thankfully,

00:01:29.280 the two usually go together. Spending time with someone with whom you share values who is your best

00:01:35.900 friend is bliss. Spending time with someone who doesn't share your values is torture. Navigating

00:01:42.820 relationships, even the best ones, is a tricky business. So approach your marriage with humility.

00:01:49.540 You're not perfect, and neither is your partner. Two, work your way to the right profession.

00:01:56.500 Most of the time, you don't spend with your spouse and your family. You spend at work. A job that you

00:02:02.980 find fulfilling and meaningful means that you're spending a good part of your day in a happy mental

00:02:08.860 state. The opposite is also true. Nothing outside of a bad marriage will make you more miserable than a

00:02:16.060 workplace you can't stand. Three, seek the sweet spot. What is the sweet spot? To understand that,

00:02:24.020 you need to understand the inverted U-curve, perhaps the most useful diagram ever conceived.

00:02:30.560 The optimal functioning of human brains and bodies adheres to the inverted U-curve.

00:02:36.440 Take, for example, perfectionism. If you lack any perfectionist bent, say as an author,

00:02:42.260 you will lack the careful attention to details that constitutes an important element of the

00:02:48.240 creative process. On the other hand, if you are too much of a perfectionist, you will spend an

00:02:54.020 inordinate amount of time distracted by minutiae that no one cares about. Somewhere between apathy

00:03:00.860 and perfectionism lies the sweet spot. You can apply the inverted U-curve to every aspect of your

00:03:08.000 personal and professional life. Not too much, not too little. Four, stay playful. Play is a human

00:03:16.240 universal found in all societies. The play instinct is so powerful that even during wartime, children

00:03:24.020 find a way to play. I have personal experience with this. I grew up in a war zone. It didn't stop me

00:03:30.420 from playing with my friends. Life is serious business. Without play, it can be overwhelming.

00:03:36.680 You can't work all the time unless, of course, you can turn your work into play. That's the best of all

00:03:43.560 possible worlds. Five, pursue many interests. Life presents us with an amazing and endless buffet

00:03:51.480 of opportunities. Almost everything qualifies. A chance meeting that leads to a deep friendship,

00:03:58.300 a casual interest that turns into a great hobby, a trip that leads to a lifelong love of travel.

00:04:04.500 Each is a potential new source of happiness. Pursue knowledge across multiple disciplines.

00:04:11.940 This is a truly enriching way to live your life. Six, be persistent and resilient. Life is hard,

00:04:19.780 but if we're persistent and resilient enough, we can use adversity to our advantage. Persistence and

00:04:26.980 resilience are closely related but different. Persistence means you have a goal and don't let

00:04:32.960 yourself be discouraged when things don't work out the way you plan. You keep pushing forward.

00:04:38.640 Resilience is the ability to keep yourself in the game in the face of failure. So don't be afraid to

00:04:44.840 fail. Failure is the way you learn. Persistence and resilience are the ways you win. Seven, minimize regret.

00:04:53.620 A remarkable hospice care nurse named Bronnie Ware recorded many of the regrets people shared with her

00:05:00.820 on their deathbeds. This one was in the top five. I wish I had let myself be happier. For most of us,

00:05:08.420 our happiness is within our control, at least partially so. When we instead allow ourselves to

00:05:14.900 be mired in unhappiness, especially on issues that are out of our control, we do ourselves a tremendous

00:05:22.380 disservice. Don't let that happen to you. Be happy. It's a better way to live.

00:05:28.340 I'm Gad Saad, professor of marketing at Concordia University and author of The Sad Truth About

00:05:35.040 Happiness for Prager University. Thank you for watching this video. To keep PragerU videos free,

00:05:42.000 please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - November 20, 2024

This Way to Happiness (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_758)

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