MM#132--Happiness Set Point

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. And our last Mojo minute, we talked about the howl of happiness, an excellent book written by Sonya, Lee Ramirez ski. And we discussed how our country and its culture is increasingly getting secular. And how that is affecting the happiness of Americans. We could we quoted from the book, The statistic of 54%, of quote us, adults, indicating that they are moderately mentally healthy yet not flourishing. That is they lacked great enthusiasm for life and are not actively and productively engaged with the world unquote. So when we have the majority of Americans who are not flourishing, we at the Mojo Academy perk up and realize we have a lot of work to do. We want everyone to be flourishing, we want you the listener to be flourishing. And ultimately, we want the whole world to be flourishing. 

Now, as a total side note here, this book, the howl of happiness was written in 2007. So I can just imagine what the statistics are today about this Happiness Equation. But especially after the last three years of COVID, and the lock downs and huge segments of our culture and our vaunted institutions, lying about one thing after another, it is surely a crazy world out there. So I'm sure the 54% statistic is probably down to 45% or less. So we really have a lot of work to do. Nevertheless, there is always hope. We are Americans, so there is always hope. But let's get back to Sonya and her book, the howl of happiness, a new approach to getting the life you want. And she details and creates the foundation of what happiness is by answering a very compelling question. Why be happy quote. And some across all the domains of life, happiness appears to have numerous positive byproducts that few of us have taken the time to really understand and becoming happier, we not only boost our energy levels, our immune systems, our engagement with work, and other people, and our physical and mental health, and becoming happier, we also bolster our feelings of self confidence and self esteem, self esteem, we come to believe that we are worthy human beings deserving of respect. A final and perhaps, least appreciated plus is that we become happier. When we become happier, we benefit not only ourselves, but also our partners, our families, our communities, and even society at large end of quote.

Now, that's a heck of a reason to want to become happier, I would think so. And here's another crucial quote from Sonya. This book is full of great quotes. And I have tons of notes in the margins and highlights and so this is a very good book. But here's her quote, It is a truism that how you think about yourself, your world and other people is more important to your happiness than the objective circumstances of your life. Unquote. Now, folks, that's some great wisdom right there. How you think about yourself, your world, and other people is more important to your happiness than the objective circumstances of your life. And this brings us to the main topic of today's Mojo minute sanyes Happiness set point. And let's go back to the book. If the cause of your unhappiness is really not your search Some stances then surely it must be that you were born this way. This is also a fallacy the myth of quote, you either have it or you don't.
Challenging the veracity of this belief is trickier. Because you see, it is partly true. As the pie chart illustrates your genetically determined predisposition for happiness, or unhappiness accounts for 50% of the differences between you and everyone else. Notably, a susceptibility to clinical depression has also been found to be partly rooted in our genetic makeups. Before we get depressed about being born depressed, however, I'd like to highlight one vital implication of these findings, that those of us who wish we were a great deal happier, should be a little less hard on ourselves, we are after all, dealing with a stacked deck to some extent. Another crucial step in clearing the way to committing to becoming happier is to appreciate the fact that 50% is a long way from 100%. And that leaves ample room for improvement. And of course, oh yes, it does. ample room for improvement. 50% is a long way. From 100%. And this pie chart she speaks about in the quote let me describe this pie chart. So you understand this nugget of wisdom better. And the pie chart, we have a question What determines happiness and 40% of the pie chart is intentional activity is labeled intentional activity. 50% is labeled setpoint. This is the happiness set point we're talking about. And just 10% is labeled circumstances. So let's go back to the quote about this specific pie chart. One of the great obstacles to attaining happiness is that most of our beliefs about what will make us happy are in fact erroneous. Yet they have been drummed into us, socialized by peers and families and role models and reinforced by the stories and images ever present in our culture. Many of the presumed sources of happiness seems so intuitive and so common sensical that all of us even happiness, researchers are prone to fall under their spell. And this is where science can shine a clear and vivid light. The three major myths about happiness that we tend to fall for are plainly illuminated by the happiness pie chart, which I hear reproduce. 

Man, I just love when we get good data, good science. I mean, like data and graphs. And here's the coup de gras that I just had to share with you all from this book. Going back to the book here. In a nutshell, the fountain of happiness can be found in how you behave, what you think and what goals you set every day of your life. There is no happiness without action. It if feelings of passivity and futility overcome you, whenever you face up to your happiness set point, or your circumstances, you must know that a genuine and abiding happiness is indeed within your reach line within the 40% of the happiness pie chart. That's yours to guide. Man, did you catch that? What's the name of the podcast theory to action? Did you catch that quote about action? Well, let me remind you, there is no happiness without action. There is no happiness without action. Fantastic stuff from Sonya and today's Mojo minute. 

So let us in today's Mojo minute, let us not listen to our culture that is overwhelmingly negative. Let's keep sanyas words close to our heart and our minds. It is about number one what you think number two, how you behave. And number three, what goals you have set everyday for yourself. That's the bedrock foundation of happiness right there. And in our next module minute we'll chat about the habits of happiness. Oh, and don't forget And most importantly, little PS here. Please no, there's no happiness. Without action. There is no happiness without action.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on