We always spend our lives thinking about the future so that we can insure a good past. And in so doing, we miss the present and are not actually alive right now. The average person is 30 to 50 per cent of their time living in the future. We all need to dial back that part of ourselves where we can be alive today.
Arthur Brooks is a bestselling author, social scientist, and the President of the American Enterprise Institute. He teaches Leadership and Happiness at the Harvard School of Business.
In this episode, Eric and Arthur discuss happiness as well as his book, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture of Contempt.
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Arthur Brooks and I Discuss What It Takes to Find Happiness and…
- His book, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture of Contempt
- The four extrinsic things that feed off fear are money, power, pleasure, and fame
- The four intrinsic things that feed off love are faith, family, friendships, and meaningful work
- How happiness requires meaning and having meaning requires challenge and/or difficulty
- The three aspects of meaning are coherence, purpose, and significance
- How writing out the thing you learned from a bad experience can bring meaning to it
- Learning to find significance in the small things
- How we need to stop living in the future and appreciate being in the present
- The freeing idea that nobody really cares like we think they do
- The more you judge others, the more you will feel judged
- The therapy for feeling insecure is to stop judging and start observing
- The link between humor and happiness
- How we should reject grimness
- Rejecting the expectations of the holidays can lead to more happiness
Arthur Brooks Links:
Arthur’s Website
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
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If you enjoyed this conversation with Arthur Brooks, you might also enjoy these other episodes:
Jonathan Rauch – The Happiness Curve
Ruth Whippman on The Complexity of Happiness
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