On a scale of one to ten, how happy would you say you are?
It changes, right?
Some days your level of content goes from way low to way high in a matter of minutes, based on circumstances.
That’s exactly what Mo Gawdat, Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], an elite team of engineers that comprise Google’s futuristic “dream factory,” wants you to consider: circumstances.
Mo spent years trying to find the key to happiness in self-help type books. But, as an engineer, he simply couldn’t wrap his brain around why our happy algorithm breaks.
Fed up, he created his own equation.
Mo looked back upon all of the moments in his life when he was happy and found the correlation between them was when events met expectations. Alternately, when there is a mismatch between those two, your happiness will suffer.
He gives the example of being stuck in traffic. You didn’t expect to be at a standstill, but now you focus only on that one hiccup… not that you’re on your way to meet someone you love, or that you have the luxury of traveling in a working mode of transportation, or that you’re not a starving child in Africa.
Mo likens a happier life to playing a video game. If the game becomes more difficult, do you set your controller down and whine and complain? No, you accept and even embrace the challenges. The joy is in the game, not when the game ends.
Mo also reminds us that most negative emotions are tied to the past (regret) and the future (worry). Guess what? You cannot alter the past, and you cannot predict the future. Why not be more present in the now?
So, three steps to work on:
1) Decide to make happiness your priority.
2) Be aware of the thoughts causing you to be unhappy.
3) If you can do something about what’s making you unhappy, do it. If you cannot, accept it.
Mo also discusses with Which Way Is Life host Bill Klaproth what he views as the six grand illusions, all of which can skew contentment (thought, self, knowledge, time, control and fear).
Sylver Lyning 