The Happiness Equation
Neil Pasricha

Summary

This book teaches you about how to change your lifestyle to give yourself time to think and be happy. A lot of stuff that I’ve heard from a variety of people that’s nicely packaged into an easily readable book. Highly recommend

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Notes

‘You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?’ – Steven Wright

‘Be content with what you have. Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ – Lao Tzu

Be happy – great work – big success

Our brains are trained for a short, brutal, competitive world

Life is 10% of what happens and 90% how you react to it

The big 7 of happiness:

• Three walks: half hour of walking per week
• The 20-minute replay – write for 20 minutes
• Random acts of kindness
• A complete unplug
• Hit flow: flow state
• 2-minute meditation
• Five gratitudes: write 5 a week

Be happy first

External goals don’t help you be a better person, only internal ones do

4 simple words that block all criticism: Do. It. For. You.

When you’re not doing it for you, you’re not doing a great job

When you don’t feel like you’re competing with others, you can only compete with yourself. And yo do more, go further & perform better

Success triangle is social, sales and self

It’s impossible to have all three successes so figure out which ones you want

Insecure

Confident

Cynical

Arrogant

Opinion of others on y axis, opinion of self on x axis

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you have to accomplish

I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be

‘It’s their mistake, not my failing.’ – Richard Feynman

Find what’s hidden, stop apologizing and accept yourself

If you can meet with triumph and disaster, treat those two competitors the same

Do it for you

None of us can control our emotions. We can only control our reactions to our emotions

We’re living in a culture of more instead of a culture of enough

‘I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet’ – Persian proverb

Remember the lottery. Remember you have enough

If you earn more than 50k a year, you’re in the top 0.5% of people on earth

‘Determine never to be idle. No person will have an occasion to complain of the wart of time, who never loses any.’ – Thomas Jefferson

‘The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.’ – Teddy Roosevelt

Find you ikigai (the reason you wake up in the morning) and write it down

Retirement is a new concept, Western concept and broken concept

Social connections are the single biggest driver of our happiness

168 hours a week divides into 3 56 hour brackets

• One is for sleep and one is for work
• The other 56 hour one is for you so spend that time on your passions

Work gives you social, structure, stimulation and story so don’t give it up

Never retire

Figure out how much you make each hour and overvalue you

Think

Burn

Space

Do

Thinking is on the y axis, doing is on the Y axis. Don’t spend too much time burning

Bed, bathtub, bus = places where ideas pop into your head

Create space in your mind and with your time

Space comes from hacking choice, time and access

Fewer choices means faster decisions

Rule #1: If the amount is higher than 1000$, put more money into an investing account

#2: If investing account is higher than 1000$, move all money to investments

Never break rule #1 or #2

We’re always exhausted from making decisions so take your brain out of it

Decide which decisions to automate, regulate, effectuate and debate

Regulate

Debate

Automate

Effectuate

Time is on the y axis, importance is on the x axis

Work expands to fill the space available and the result is lower quality

The less time available, the more effort you put in

Move deadlines up to increase your effort and productivity

Remove all entry points to your brain except the single one you control

Creating space is the secret step to freeing yourself from the oppression of your busy life

Remove choice, remove time and remove access

‘The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.’ – C. G. Jung

Put your gym clothes on your bed

Motivation doesn’t cause action. Action causes motivation

Be you and be cool with it

Happiness is when what you think, you say and what you are in harmony – Gandhi

Your relationship with yourself is the most important relationship in your life

What you do on a Saturday morning when you have nothing to do

The bench test: immerse yourself in a new situation, you want to test and then observe your authentic reaction to that situation

If you’re in a new office, ask for a tour

Always think about that you’re the average of the five people closest to you

Being you removes regret from your life. Authentically remove it from your life

Happiness is a choice

Biggest regret of people on their deathbed is not living a life for themselves

Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free – Eckhart Tolle

Find a partner who can be your level of happy or higher

Advice is never objectively true in all situations

The answers are inside of you. Think deep and decide what’s best. Go forth and be happy