If you’re visiting today from Gretchen Rubin’s “The Happiness Project” on Slate, welcome! We share a common interest in the science and art of happiness and fulfillment – and I’m glad to meet you.
Adding to Gretchen’s great list, one thing I’ve learned about happiness and fulfillment over the past year is from peak performance coach Tony Robbins. A simple but powerful formula:
- We’re unhappy when our Life Conditions (“LC”) are not equal our Blueprint (‘BP”, ie, our model for how we think things should be).
- When that happens, we have 3 choices: 1) we can change our LC; 2) We can change our BP; or 3) We can blame – ourselves or others for our circumstances.
- That third choice doesn’t really change anything, so our only real choice is to change our LC or change our BP! (Yet how many of us spend much of our time and energy doing the least powerful choice among those options?)
What’s YOUR take? What’s the most powerful thing you’ve learned recently about the science and art of happiness and fulfillment? Please share your thoughts and comments here on the blog.
And if you’re on Twitter, please drop me a line there, I’d love to follow you and learn together!
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Just watched a great TED video on the subject the other day. Dan Gilbert explained the mental process of synthesizing happiness. The reality is a bit counter-intuitive. As soon as we accept a situation our brains can embrace it and create a feeling of happiness. The oddity is that when stuck with something we can “decide” that it’s favorable quicker that if we have many choices to vacillate on. Good stuff.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
Dave, found your January comment on scobleizer blog – http://scobleizer.com/2009/01/12/if-you-are-laid-off-heres-how-to-socially-network/. I was fired in December from a newspaper web site in Toledo, Ohio, and I am building my “non-expert” social media skills and trying to stay in shape to maintain focus. Thanks for the encouragement from your words.
We recently changed our tag line for Bigg Success. Bigg Success is life on your own terms. You own your life so you choose the terms by which you live. Don’t let others place them upon you.
Live each day by those terms, doing all you can to reach the next level of success. Some days you will win; others you won’t. But no matter what, over time you will find yourself moving toward the life that you dream of living.
Knowing that you have done all you can today to live your life on your own terms will make you happy!
I’ve learned that for me, happiness is dependent upon feeling loved, being loving and being responsible. Fear and victimhood are huge blocks to achieving true happiness and make receiving love virtually impossible. People tend to take love out of the equation in their work lives, but the truth is, we haul our human needs around everywhere. When we feel unloved at work, we cannot be successful. Our happiness creates success and attracts others. I think neither LC or BP are as important as I once thought as long as I have the foundation of happiness that comes from feeling loved. That’s what I’m looking for!
There is a book “The Happiness Prescription” by Deepak Chopra in his book he includes a formula for happiness looks like this Happiness=Set Point + Conditions of Living + Voluntary Actions/Activities. Your set point(S) is where you are as a default. Some people are naturally happier than others. Conditions(C) are events that occur and are occurring in your life. Voluntary Actions(V) which are notably have 50% influence for this equation. Your actions and choices are the biggest influence on the level of happiness in your life.