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On this episode we discuss why the search for happiness actually makes us feel worse. I’ll share with you a paradigm shift that will change the way you look at happiness forever!

Transcript
Amin Ahmed:

On a scale of one to 10, how happy would you say that you are?

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I asked this same question to a good friend of mine while we

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were having sushi for lunch.

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And his response was not unlike others.

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He said he was around a seven out of 10.

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Then I asked him what it would take to get him to attend the conversation that

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we had after this question changed the way that he looked at happiness for.

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In the next three minutes, we're going to discuss why searching

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for happiness is a terrible idea.

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I'm Amin Ahmed and welcome to be well do well.

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All right.

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So back to this story, if you recall, I asked my friend what it would take to

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get his happiness from a seven to a 10.

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Now he mentioned things like more money or better health, more free time.

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Of course the six pack is always in there.

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We all want these things.

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Some others may have said that they want more cars or jewelry or a vacation.

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Well, there's nothing wrong with wanting these material things.

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The problem comes when we use them to hold our happiness hostage.

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This is exactly what I said to him.

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I asked him, why are you holding your happiness hostage to more

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money or a new car or a new.

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When I realized that I too was holding my happiness hostage, using money,

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time, physical things, it really liberated me just knowing that this is

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something that I was doing consciously and realizing that that really changed

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the way I thought about having.

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Why should my happiness be determined by external factors?

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Could I not simply choose to be happy with what I have now without

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any conditions or strings attached?

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That's the question I kept asking myself, what can I do now to be happy on a scale

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of 10, right at that 10 or maybe even 11.

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At that point, I made a conscious choice not to allow outside

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factors to control my happiness.

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I decided that I was going to be an 11.

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. I should point out here that while you can be 10 on a happiness scale, you can

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also still feel sad, angry, disappointed.

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These are all natural emotions and you should feel them.

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You shouldn't hold them back and you shouldn't bottle them up.

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So you see searching for happiness outside of yourself really is a terrible thing.

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There is always going to be somebody else that has more money that has

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a nicer car or a bigger house.

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And if your happiness is attached to your value based on what you have materially

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or how you look physically, of course, you want to feel healthy and you want

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to be healthy, but being skinnier or more muscular, that's really taking

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it outside of who you are and saying that this is how somebody else sees.

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So, let me ask you again on a scale of 10, how happy are you now?

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That's all for today.

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Come back tomorrow to learn about how to get more done by

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slowing down, have an awesome day.