Psychology and a Good Life
How to live a good life?
- BIG IDEA 1: This enterprise is possible.
- BIG IDEA 2: We think life’s circumstances matter a ton, but they don’t matter nearly as much as we think
- BIG IDEA 3: Taking control of it, is kind of hard
- BIG IDEA 4: One of the hard you have to do when you begin this enterprise, is recognizing your intuition don’t work
- BIG IDEA 5: Make time for social connection
BIG IDEA 1: This enterprise is possible.
We can control and improve our happiness a lot more than we think.
- Happiness may be somewhat herritable, but it is still mostly in our control and it’s our decisions that dictate our happiness.
- If our genes control 50% of our happiness, then it stands to reason that we have control over the other 50%.
BIG IDEA 2: We think life’s circumstances matter a ton, but they don’t matter nearly as much as we think
Rent, work, and School may be important, but are they more important to us than happiness?
- Lottery winners are happy on the day they win the lottery
- But months later, lottery winners have the same happiness as they did before winning
- The opposite applies to bad scenarios
- Unfortunate events may cause frustration and sadness in the instant they happen, but they will dissipate quickly over time too
- We as humans get used to it
- Individuals who experience catastrophic events are more likely to view life with a positive attitude, viewing their life as more precious
BIG IDEA 3: Taking control of it, is kind of hard
Just how hard is it to be happy?
- We can control our happiness through our behaviors
- It takes daily work and effort to be happy
- Unhappy people can do happy things everyday and persevere that way to feel happy
- Any big event in life requires effort, happiness is the same
- A change in happiness requires permenant changes that persist every day of our life
- training happiness is similar to exercising
- The GI Joe fallacy: Knowing is half the battle. Just listening to something isn’t enough, you must apply it.
BIG IDEA 4: One of the hard you have to do when you begin this enterprise, is recognizing your intuition don’t work
Our mind is lying to us
- Our mind forcasts things that makes us happy, but in reality it does not
- People correlate salary (money) with happiness
- People at different salary levels have different expectations, 30k -> 50k -> 100k … etc
- expectations aren’t linear, it grows exponentially
- Salary vs happiness levels off quickly
- People who seek out material posessions are more likely to have lesser wellbeing,
BIG IDEA 5: Make time for social connection
Very happy people prioritize social connections
- Very happy people spend more time with others and less time alone
- Prioritize the stuff that works
- Spend time with friends and families
- Unhappy people spend more time alone than happy people
- Experiments that spend time with strangers also showed that connecting with others showed significantly greater positivity than staying alone