Mark Williamson - Confessions of a recovering people pleaser

We've known Mark and Action for Happiness for many years but this conversation was different. Here we learned about Mark's sometimes painful journey into the world of social entrepreneurship. It was a real pleasure to talk about:  

• Big questions such as "What really matters in life?"
• What happens when you climb the ladder of success only to find you're climbing the wrong ladder
• What it takes to help people experience and create a happier world
• How our leaders have forgotten to focus on the greatest happiness for the greatest number
• Why measuring GDP at a national level and personal wealth at an individual level does not measure success
• How Coca Cola have cheapened happiness
• Why the feeling of happiness is so universal but what makes us happy can be so different
• The benefits of the Stoic philosophy of choosing how we react to situations  
• Changing ourselves when we are no longer able to change the situation
• The importance of 'meta cognition' aka 'noticing how you feel' as the first step to doing something about it
• The role of the Dalai Lama in the Action for Happiness movement 
• What it means to live a good life and care about each other
• The Dalai Lama's secularism and his sense that we need to create a new way of being 
• Consumerism and why it's such a poor substitute for purpose and a shared humanity
• The trials and tribulations of growing up in a loving Malvern family
• Noticing a depressed peer in the year above and using it as the motivation to study
• His ten years as a management consultant where he focused on the money but wasn't proud of what he did
• How he had neglected the emotional side of life 
• The power of the 'good life crisis' and how it can help provide direction
• How Mark's increasing emotional discomfort with his work turned into a constant physical pain 
• Mark's low point when he was diagnosed with a degenerative hereditary spinal disorder and faced the prospect of a wheelchair in his 40's
• 'Back Sense', his wife's gifted book that prompted him to think himself free of pain
• His interest in the placebo effect
• How his MBA allowed him to slowly understand himself and the human condition 
• The importance of Kate, Mark's then girlfriend and now wife, in helping him do something different
• The struggle of bringing oneself to work versus knowing when to stop when you do
• The options that come with a frugal life
• The difficulty and the power of listening to your gut
• Meeting Neil Crofts and answering his three questions:
  • What are you really good at? 
  • What are you passionate about?
  • What makes you angry?  
• The angst of leaving The Carbon Trust and a job he loved for the challenge of Action for Happiness 
• Life as a recovering people pleaser
• Following the energy when deciding where to put your own energy
• The future of Action for Happiness  
• Why personal success and community success is not a zero sum gain / why me and we are the same thing

https://www.actionforhappiness.org/
www.neilcrofts.com
www.backsense.org