This Way to Happiness (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_758)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
149.28662
Summary
7 Ways to Maximize Your Happiness: 7 Steps to Live Happier in the 21st Century by Jay Shetty, a professor of marketing at Concord University and author of The Truth About Happiness, shares his top 5 tips for living a happier life.
Transcript
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I recently had the great classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson on my YouTube show
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The Sad Truth. Victor ended our conversation with the following, it's so nice to see an academic
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who smiles. I don't do it enough, but you do. His comment moved me deeply. Sure, my positive
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demeanor is partly my nature, but like everyone else, I've had my share of misfortune and
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disappointment. I grew up literally in the middle of a war zone in Beirut, Lebanon. I had a promising
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future as a soccer player kicked out from under me by a devastating injury. I've lost coveted
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teaching positions because of my iconoclastic political views. The list of personal setbacks
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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
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let life beat me down. I don't want to be unhappy for five minutes longer than necessary. Life is too
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precious and too short. To that end, I've given the subject of happiness a lot of thought. Here are
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seven ways to maximize your happiness. One, find the right spouse. The most important person in life
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is your spouse, so choose wisely. He or she is also the person you are going to spend the most time with.
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This is why liking your spouse is even more important than loving them, although thankfully,
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the two usually go together. Spending time with someone with whom you share values who is your best
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friend is bliss. Spending time with someone who doesn't share your values is torture. Navigating
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relationships, even the best ones, is a tricky business. So approach your marriage with humility.
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You're not perfect, and neither is your partner. Two, work your way to the right profession.
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Most of the time, you don't spend with your spouse and your family. You spend at work. A job that you
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find fulfilling and meaningful means that you're spending a good part of your day in a happy mental
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state. The opposite is also true. Nothing outside of a bad marriage will make you more miserable than a
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workplace you can't stand. Three, seek the sweet spot. What is the sweet spot? To understand that,
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you need to understand the inverted U-curve, perhaps the most useful diagram ever conceived.
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The optimal functioning of human brains and bodies adheres to the inverted U-curve.
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Take, for example, perfectionism. If you lack any perfectionist bent, say as an author,
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you will lack the careful attention to details that constitutes an important element of the
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creative process. On the other hand, if you are too much of a perfectionist, you will spend an
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inordinate amount of time distracted by minutiae that no one cares about. Somewhere between apathy
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and perfectionism lies the sweet spot. You can apply the inverted U-curve to every aspect of your
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personal and professional life. Not too much, not too little. Four, stay playful. Play is a human
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universal found in all societies. The play instinct is so powerful that even during wartime, children
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find a way to play. I have personal experience with this. I grew up in a war zone. It didn't stop me
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from playing with my friends. Life is serious business. Without play, it can be overwhelming.
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You can't work all the time unless, of course, you can turn your work into play. That's the best of all
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possible worlds. Five, pursue many interests. Life presents us with an amazing and endless buffet
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of opportunities. Almost everything qualifies. A chance meeting that leads to a deep friendship,
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a casual interest that turns into a great hobby, a trip that leads to a lifelong love of travel.
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Each is a potential new source of happiness. Pursue knowledge across multiple disciplines.
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This is a truly enriching way to live your life. Six, be persistent and resilient. Life is hard,
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but if we're persistent and resilient enough, we can use adversity to our advantage. Persistence and
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resilience are closely related but different. Persistence means you have a goal and don't let
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yourself be discouraged when things don't work out the way you plan. You keep pushing forward.
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Resilience is the ability to keep yourself in the game in the face of failure. So don't be afraid to
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fail. Failure is the way you learn. Persistence and resilience are the ways you win. Seven, minimize regret.
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A remarkable hospice care nurse named Bronnie Ware recorded many of the regrets people shared with her
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on their deathbeds. This one was in the top five. I wish I had let myself be happier. For most of us,
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our happiness is within our control, at least partially so. When we instead allow ourselves to
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be mired in unhappiness, especially on issues that are out of our control, we do ourselves a tremendous
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disservice. Don't let that happen to you. Be happy. It's a better way to live.
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I'm Gad Saad, professor of marketing at Concordia University and author of The Sad Truth About
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Happiness for Prager University. Thank you for watching this video. To keep PragerU videos free,
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please consider making a tax-deductible donation.