The pursuit of happiness as a forecasting problem
Happiness is…In case you haven’t seen it yet, my buddy Alex Shalman, (Practical Personal Development), recently launched his “Happiness Project.” After hearing Tim Ferriss recommend Dan Gilbert’s book, “Stumbling On Happiness” , I’m very, very curious about people’s findings about one of the most sought after prizes in life: good, old-fashioned happiness.
- How do you define happiness?
I’d say happiness is a feeling of elation, of positivity… the feeling you get when you’re seeing the world as a benevolent place, and that things are going your way.
- On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?
Oh, an 8 at least… I had some rough spots as a kid, from being overweight, and from not having the tools to cope with what was going on in my family. Having tools is such a huge part of the equation; we all hit rough patches in life, but if you don’t know what to do with them, or how to get through them, it’s easy to feel that life has you in a hole.
Find Happiness For Yourself: Top 6 Ways to Keep Yourself Happy – motivation sparks
With what I’ve learned over the past decade-plus, about how to heal myself, clear issues, make decisions, live intuitively, etc., I feel like I’m a completely different person than I was (and to all the girlfriends I had before the age of 25 – sorry!).
- What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness? (and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day)
I think it’s less about the things, and more about how we go about the things. For example, what brings me happiness is knowing that I’m championing my own destiny, not sitting back and waiting for life to happen to me.
From that place, all the things like spending time with my two girls, my wife, exercising, learning, talking with people… all of these things bring me a much deeper sense of joy. And yes, it’s pretty consistent throughout the day.
10 Mistakes Made In The pursuit of happiness constitution –
- What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?
Falling into negative thought patterns is the biggie. When I start spiraling down a negative, pessimistic path, it’s just a world of hurt that I’m swimming in.
What works best for me is to put on the brakes, and reconnect to my heart, and my connection to (insert name for Divine Oneness here). Then, using various tools like EFT, for example, to clear the beliefs that I’m stuck in… that does the trick pretty well.
The 3 Great Essentials To Happiness – archely
Surrounding myself with positive inspirations is also a great thing; I try to pay attention to thought leaders in fields like the Law of Attraction, for example, and see if I can get into their mental slipstream.
- What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?
You mean, aside from world domination? 🙂
To run the risk of sounding like a groupie, I’m in the process of re-ordering my life around the kinds of principles that Tim Ferriss writes about in “Four Hour Workweek.” Mainly, examining the assumptions I’ve made about how life is to be lived, and choosing to live the kind of life that inspires me. And that includes everything from income-generation to spiritual growth to family and social time.
How To Find The Happiness? A speck of gold is found under a ton of dirt – archely
I’m rethinking just about every assumption that has been handed to me (and the ones that popular people keep on espousing), to see what really makes sense for me in my life. It’s the pursuit of happiness on every level, really.
Thanks Alex! Good luck with the project!
Self-Motivation- The 7 Best Key To Getting Work Done! – motivation sparks