EP25 – Truth, Lies and The Pursuit of Happiness With Dr. Laurie Santos
EP. 25
Truth, Lies And The Pursuit of Happiness With Dr. Laurie Santos
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
EP25 – Truth, Lies and The Pursuit of Happiness With Dr. Laurie Santos
EP. 25
Truth, Lies And The Pursuit of Happiness With Dr. Laurie Santos
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
What makes you happy?
Or perhaps more accurately, what do you THINK makes you happy?
And what if you’ve got it all wrong?
Have you ever been really excited or gungho for something — maybe a vacation, a concert, a big goal or a 1st date and it played out exactly as you wanted but in the end, it didn’t give you the joy, happiness or fulfillment that you expected.
Well, if so, you’re definitely not alone.
One of the core tenents of this podcast is to shine the spotlight on what truly matters in the pursuit of your potential. Not just in personal opinion, but in well-researched and validated science.
Personal, I geek out on what modern science and research can tell us about ourselves that flies beneath the radar of our awareness and understanding.
And it turns out that how we see, what we expect and our attempt to achieve happiness might be one area that we completely misunderstand.
So I’m super excited to bring you today’s conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos from Yale University.
I first learned of Laurie when I was preparing for a keynote presentation to an audience of 400 first-year university students. I was keen to understand what are the challenges that students face and was struck that both Stanford University and Yale University — two higher learning institutions that are world-renowned for their academic excellence, elite courses and producing super smart thinkers in advanced subjects — that both these schools most popular courses were about consciously creating a life of happiness, meaning and fulfillment.
“We are very bad at predicting our happiness.”
“Prioritizing well-being will fuel success.”
While that’s not exactly a hard science, it is absolutely a science and as we’re about to find out, it can take hard work to consciously create happiness, in a true and meaningful way in our lives.
Our guest today is the designer and deliverer of that course at Yale University.
To help you make this episode highly personal to you, I’d ask you to think, right now in this moment, think about what you are current working hard to achieve or pursue.
What are you pouring your time, attention or money into and what about pursuing that do you think will make you happy?
And are you happy in the process or are you just hoping that happiness will be the payoff in the end.
With that in mind, prepare to have your expectations challenged by Dr. Laurie Santos. Be open to being wrong and be open to taking a different path to your ultimate happiness.
Enjoy the conversation…
What we cover in this episode:
- The lies our minds tell us about happiness
- Impact bias – how we forecast feelings that aren’t accurate
- Finding the “Bronze” lining instead of the Silver lining
- What she learned from Michelle Kwan, Olympic figure skater
- How external rewards can dilute our internal motivation
- Why students are pursuing the wrong goals
- We are more resilient that we give ourselves credit for
- Why our “reference points” of happiness determine a LOT of our happiness
- How greater well-being accelerate ambitious achievement
- The importance of social connection
- What predicts a lifetime of happiness
“Look for the Bronze lining, not the silver lining.”
What makes you happy?
Or perhaps more accurately, what do you THINK makes you happy?
And what if you’ve got it all wrong?
Have you ever been really excited or gungho for something — maybe a vacation, a concert, a big goal or a 1st date and it played out exactly as you wanted but in the end, it didn’t give you the joy, happiness or fulfillment that you expected.
Well, if so, you’re definitely not alone.
One of the core tenents of this podcast is to shine the spotlight on what truly matters in the pursuit of your potential. Not just in personal opinion, but in well-researched and validated science.
Personal, I geek out on what modern science and research can tell us about ourselves that flies beneath the radar of our awareness and understanding.
And it turns out that how we see, what we expect and our attempt to achieve happiness might be one area that we completely misunderstand.
So I’m super excited to bring you today’s conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos from Yale University.
I first learned of Laurie when I was preparing for a keynote presentation to an audience of 400 first-year university students. I was keen to understand what are the challenges that students face and was struck that both Stanford University and Yale University — two higher learning institutions that are world-renowned for their academic excellence, elite courses and producing super smart thinkers in advanced subjects — that both these schools most popular courses were about consciously creating a life of happiness, meaning and fulfillment.
“We are very bad at predicting our happiness.”
“Prioritizing well-being will fuel success.”
While that’s not exactly a hard science, it is absolutely a science and as we’re about to find out, it can take hard work to consciously create happiness, in a true and meaningful way in our lives.
Our guest today is the designer and deliverer of that course at Yale University.
To help you make this episode highly personal to you, I’d ask you to think, right now in this moment, think about what you are current working hard to achieve or pursue.
What are you pouring your time, attention or money into and what about pursuing that do you think will make you happy?
And are you happy in the process or are you just hoping that happiness will be the payoff in the end.
With that in mind, prepare to have your expectations challenged by Dr. Laurie Santos. Be open to being wrong and be open to taking a different path to your ultimate happiness.
Enjoy the conversation…
What we cover in this episode:
- The lies our minds tell us about happiness
- Impact bias – how we forecast feelings that aren’t accurate
- Finding the “Bronze” lining instead of the Silver lining
- What she learned from Michelle Kwan, Olympic figure skater
- How external rewards can dilute our internal motivation
- Why students are pursuing the wrong goals
- We are more resilient that we give ourselves credit for
- Why our “reference points” of happiness determine a LOT of our happiness
- How greater well-being accelerate ambitious achievement
- The importance of social connection
- What predicts a lifetime of happiness