Pay direct attention to whether your daily activities genuinely make you feel good, rather than living according to external expectations or what you think should make you happy.
Design your environment to make it easier to form good habits and do things that make you feel good, leveraging the brain’s tendency to create automatic habit loops.
Focus on ‘design power’ by structuring your environment and routines to support good habits, rather than relying solely on ‘willpower,’ which is often weak.
Formulate a detailed plan for how you will implement your intentions to change behavior, as intentions alone are insufficient without a concrete plan.
To successfully do something you want, make the process as easy as possible so that it becomes encoded in habit and you do it without thinking.
Design your life to achieve a balance of pleasure (things you find fun) and purpose (things you find fulfilling) that works for you, as happiness is the combination of both.
Adopt a ‘just enough’ mindset regarding wealth, success, and education, recognizing there’s a point where more of these things no longer contribute to happiness and can even be detrimental.
Cultivate compassion, a more detached form of caring, rather than empathy, to direct your pro-social time and money towards doing the most good for a wider range of people, not just those similar to you.
Actively practice kindness, compassion, and gratitude, as these traits are highly associated with increased happiness, good health, and longer, healthier lives.
Free yourself from the myth of the perfect life, as happiness is subjective, allowing you to create a life that’s worth living for yourself.
Recognize that often ’not having time’ for something means you haven’t prioritized it, and many people can find or make time for important activities.
Surround yourself with people who engage in the behaviors you want to adopt, as social norms and peer effects significantly influence your actions.
If your current social networks hinder desired behaviors (e.g., reducing alcohol intake), consider redesigning your peer groups to make it easier to achieve your goals, despite the potential difficulty.
Be aware that comparing your income and possessions upwards to those who have more can decrease your happiness, so actively work to avoid this tendency.
Challenge the societal pressure to constantly pursue ‘what’s next’ in terms of achievements, and instead, pause and appreciate the present.
As parents, actively work to change the narratives you pass on to your children, encouraging them to think beyond traditional measures of success like better jobs or more money.
Guide children to consider how they might use their time and money in ways that align with their happiness, rather than solely pursuing wealth or status.
Plan activities like workouts into your diary to ensure you have time for them, as prioritizing them makes it easier to get them done.
Place visual cues or objects related to desired behaviors (e.g., a weights bench) in your environment to make them more salient and increase the likelihood of performing the action.
Place ’temptations’ that are good for you and align with desired behaviors directly in front of you to increase the likelihood of engaging with them.
Actively engage in simple activities known to improve happiness, such as listening to music, going outdoors, and spending time with friends, by making them easy to do.
To make gym attendance a routine, find a gym buddy and establish a fixed time, day, and place to go together, making it easier to stick to.
Subscribe to curated content like the ‘Friday Five’ email for regular doses of positivity, including articles, books, quotes, and research, to feel good and prepare for the weekend.
Spread positivity and value by sharing podcast episodes or similar content with friends and family.
If you enjoy a bite-sized clip, seek out and listen to the full conversation with the guest for more in-depth content.
Subscribe to the podcast to ensure you receive future episodes, including long-form conversations and bite-sized clips.