Episode 644 Scott Adams: The Happiness Formula

Date: 2019-08-28 | Duration: 19:48

Topics

Content: The Happiness Formula: A Scott Adams whiteboard talk Link to whiteboard image: https://www.scottadamssays.com/2019/08/28/episode-644-scott-adams-the-happiness-formula/ Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still/dp/1591847745/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DVSPV4DUT242&keywords=scott+adams+how+to+fail+at+almost+everything+and+still+win+big&qid=1567006645&s=gateway&sprefix=Scott+Adams%2C+how+%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-1

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:02]

there's not much news today so that's the danger so I wanted to teach you how to be happy I've spent my life trying to turn it into a formula had to be happy and I did that my book how to fail and almost everything and still win big but I'm gonna give you the the quicker synopsis for those who you who don't know how to be happy and as obvious as this will be as some of you for many of you this will be the first time you've ever seen it I explained this way let me explain happiness so happiness here's at the top that's your goal we'd all like to be happy in order to be happy there are three chemicals in your body in your brain that need to be at the right level now I'm going to grossly oversimplify the chemical nature of human beings that are certainly lost more than three chemicals involved in keeping you happy but as a general statement if these three are

[1:03]

general statement if these three are where they need to be you're probably going to be happy unless there's some terrible problem in your life that you know is unsolvable so did I spell serotonin room I may have spelled it wrong tell me if I spelled that wrong anyway so these chemicals can be boosted through lifestyle if you don't know that you don't understand how happiness works most people that I talk to you are under the mistaken impression the happiness is something you can think your way into in other words if you put some happy thoughts in your head or or you don't have any problems or where there's somehow a mental process your happiness is not a mental process if you think it is you can't help yourself you're gonna be lost forever so whether you have a

[2:05]

be lost forever so whether you have a mental problem that keeps you low in these things which is typical you know depression anxiety OCD their number of mental conditions which which are least associated with lower levels of these things if you treat happiness as a physical process the end result of which is you feel happy then you have a mechanism to do something about it if you think it's a mental process there's nothing you can do about it you are a victim of your environment but if you understand that you can do things in your life that will boost these chemicals and then these chemicals in turn will make you feel good then you have a mechanism and for each of these things let me explain these things so oxytocin is the chemical that makes you feel connected to people makes you feel in love makes you feel bonded and that's mostly from social interaction especially touch you can get it from sex

[3:06]

especially touch you can get it from sex hugging I think you can get it from your pets you know playing with your cat or your dog and you can get it from a massage yeah and children can get it from their their parents from touch but these other things dopamine and serotonin are sort of lifestyle related and if you get a system for all of this stuff the system for your diet and exercise and sleep you're going to have a lot more of it how many people do you know who believe they're unhappy but all they're doing is they're doing this stuff wrong they're doing the they're doing the lifestyle stuff wrong and they think hey I'm unhappy there's something wrong with the way I'm thinking there's something wrong with my brain probably not there's probably and when I say probably I'm just saying 80% of the time for 80% of you the feeling of not being happy or fulfilled all of those feelings or because you don't have a system in place to work toward improving

[4:09]

system in place to work toward improving these over time so for diet for example I talked about this in my book had it failed almost everything and still win big it should be a lifelong process of learning about diet and experimenting with what works for you in my case if if I eat too many bad carbs I find you too many bad carbs I'm unhappy every frickin time every time if I if I have a burrito for lunch the rest of the day I'm not happy because my energy will crash and I can't be happy when I have yes a sugar crash so learn about diet by making you the lifelong system to chip away at it and experiment learn that protein is good for you learn that simple carbs are bad for you always always don't have cheat days if you have a cheat day you don't understand how anything works

[5:11]

you don't understand how anything works there's the longer explanation for that but don't have a cheat day exercise again my book added fail teaches you how to create habits and how to organize your life so it's more likely that you'll do something active every day doesn't matter what you do but be active every day you will find that if you get exercise right most of your days are better everybody who has an exercise routine will confirm what I'm saying on days that you exercise you feel happier it's pretty much a one to one thing so learn to do that get enough sleep a lot of people think that sleep is somehow out of their control sleep is something you absolutely control now again these are 80% true statements 20% of the people may have some medical problem they've got something that needs to deal with but for 80% of us go to bed the

[6:12]

with but for 80% of us go to bed the same time wake up the same same time every day don't put your you know don't watch TV and dad don't do things that get you excited don't watch a scary movie before you go to bed you know there there are some very basic things which all you'd have to do is Google some articles about how to sleep follow the follow the steps there aren't that many of them every article on how to sleep would be pretty similar learn a system for sleep if you're the kind of person who likes to stay up really late on weekends but then during the week you've got to go back to your you know your eight to five life you're just killing yourself you don't have much chance of being happy if you think that you can mess with your sleep and still be happy you can't you can have a good evening but you're awake is not going to be happy make sure you get some nature there's you know meaning get outside Sun is important but it seems to be important here to your chemistry to just

[7:13]

important here to your chemistry to just interact with nature so get out of the house get around some trees get around some grass that helps do what you can to improve your social life I recommend the Dale Carnegie method of learning how to talk to people learning how to be good to people here's the big trick for a good social life you ready I don't believe it's hard for me to believe I have to tell you this but probably the vast majority of you don't know what I'm gonna say next and it will change your life you ready if you don't have a good social life that's your fault totally it's your fault because you don't know the technique having a good social life is technique now I can't get into all of it the Dale Carnegie courses will teach you but you should know how to talk to strangers you should know how to talk to people and have good conversations but the main thing you need to do to have a good social life is give more than you

[8:15]

good social life is give more than you get that's it think you generously and people will say well that's somebody I want to hang around with that person just asked me if they could do me a favor I barely know that's somebody you want to spend some time with invite people to your place set up an outing yourself buy somebody lunch solve a problem for somebody offer to help all right social life is completely under your control stop thinking that people will like you for who you are on the inside nobody cares who you are on the inside they can't see it you can't see the inside of you they know they only know what you do they can't read your mind so do things that are generous if you do that you will have a social life might not be the first day but you're gonna have one so get out in the real world get involved in some some groups where

[9:17]

get involved in some some groups where there are people go make yourself a solution life I find that it's useful to have a purpose in life a purpose the best way to find one is to be useful to society and to other people if what you're doing all day is good for no one but you you will not feel like you have a purpose and that will eat at your chemical state it will decrease your you're happy chemicals so find a purpose it's easy to find a purpose figure out what you're good at or at least you can become good at and you're willing to do then try it if it doesn't work try something else you've watched me most of you watch me try to be useful for the blight Authority bill poultice thing trying to clean up the inner cities as well as bill Paul T's philanthropic efforts I've been trying to be supportive of that and a number of

[10:19]

to be supportive of that and a number of other things I try to be helpful on those things give me meaning when I'm when I'm what I have quiet moments I think about those things because I say to myself yeah I'm doing stuff that might not help I don't know if it'll make a big difference but at least I'm doing things that make sense could work or part of a solution perhaps a little bit helpful in these different ways somebody says loving your family correct you could build a sense of purpose around your family now there's a trap there because that usually means around your children because the children leave eventually so you want to be able to find ways to you know find meaning that are not dependent on one or two people I also find that when I'm learning and and growing in other words I'm getting better at something I feel more fulfilled and my body chemistry feels better so it doesn't matter what you're learning or growing

[11:21]

matter what you're learning or growing at could be your career could be something useful in some other way and it could be just learning the things that you need to take care of yourself could be just learning that but build your talent stack add talents all the time you should never be here's my advice you should never be in a state of not learning period now you might be so busy they have to reduce the time that you're spending learning something to a small part of your day that would be normal but never have a day where you didn't learn something you can google something you can read an article you can talk to somebody who knows more than you do you can use my app you know interface by when table and call an expert to learn something you needed to know but try to learn something every day you will be amazed what that does to you you'll have a sense of moving in the right direction alright so in summary happiness is not

[12:22]

alright so in summary happiness is not some internal mental process that you can just think your way to a better happiness it is a chemical state if you get your body chemistry right mostly these three chemicals are the ones you hear about you will have a feeling of contentment and happiness to get those chemicals right science is very clear what works gotta get your diet right your exercise your sleep got to get out in nature touch some people improve your social life avoid stress I didn't talk about this one but it's obvious I do not watch movies that are dramas I do not watch movies that are scary or have bad endings I won't even watch a comedy if it has a bad ending I don't I don't expose myself to fiction which is negative because even if you think you're entertained and you are you're adding stress to your life you don't know I avoid stressful people if

[13:23]

don't know I avoid stressful people if you are toxic I'm just not going to talk to you again that's it do I feel bad when I cut people out of my life and I don't talk to them again a little bit but not as bad as I feel when I'm with them the horror is spending time with toxic people the horror is not the embarrassment or the discomfort or the awkwardness of getting rid of them you have to get rid of toxic people and learn and grow and that will give you a purpose if you're being useful to the world yeah the news can be quite toxic as well I'm addicted to news at the moment because a lot of the Trump news is entertaining it's literally funny and nobody's getting hurt most of the time sometimes it you know devolves into bad stuff do I make an exception for Game of Thrones yeah I kinda do I do but when I watch Game of Thrones

[14:23]

Game of Thrones I don't feel tension or stress it's well made and it's funny and it takes me into a different world and it doesn't seem like a real world so I don't think that too seriously I would say if you're watching Lord of the Rings which you would say is a drama action a lot of people getting killed Lord of the Rings is just sort of a fantasy fun things so I wouldn't worry about that I would never watch a Quentin Tarantino movie again I've watched his movies and they just make me feel bad period they're well made apparently Quentin Tarantino is an amazing filmmaker all the critics agree but a lot of his films make me feel bad so I don't watch them same with Spielberg Spielberg is on the top of my list of directors to avoid now if he does a comedy movie or you know something light-hearted I would certainly watch that because he's a great filmmaker but if he does something

[15:25]

great filmmaker but if he does something like you know anything about the Holocaust for example shouldn't there's less it's gonna be you so well made that it brings you into this horrible world and it's like you you you were there I'm still scarred by movies I've seen years ago and some of them are Spielberg's so that's your happiness formula the main point is to understand that it's a chemical reaction and that you control your chemistry by your lifestyle and specifically you can develop systems over time where maybe you don't know too much about diet but you can learn it don't know too much about exercise or systems you can learn it and that just changed some percentage of some percentage of those watching this their lives just completely changed I guarantee you now I don't know what

[16:25]

guarantee you now I don't know what percentage it is it could be one percent could be ten percent could be thirty percent but for a lot of you your your life just completely changed because for the first time you're seeing a completely practical path to get from wherever you are to how you want to feel and and once you see that this works and the only way to see it is to actually practice it start paying attention to your diet your sleep and your exercise and also your touch and your nature to start paying attention to what you did that day and then pay attention to how you feel about your day once you notice there's a one-to-one correlation between doing those things right that get your chemistry right and having a good day you're all set that's that's what you need you need that realization to make it real and you have to do it and try it

[17:26]

it real and you have to do it and try it to be able to actually feel that it makes a difference all right
and just looking at your your comments now I I hear everyday from people who say their life was completely transformed by thinking of their life in terms of systems versus goals the goal would be to be happy but how wow you need a system to get there so as soon as you remember that the goal doesn't tell you how to get there the systems do then you've got a you've got a formula for working your way through life to a better solution all right I will I'll take a picture of the whiteboard here I will put that that will be part of the the YouTube posting so everything I do here in periscope gets posted on YouTube within a few hours and will post the photo on this

[18:28]

hours and will post the photo on this it'll be at that real coffee with Scott Adams on YouTube somebody says isn't it true that some people don't need daily relations well there are people who are introverts I would consider myself one of them people who find that spending a lot of time with other people can be draining other people find that spending a lot of time with other people can be more fulfilling and energizing but even if you're an introvert you you can't escape nature's requirements in other words your your chemical situation it has a lot in common with somebody who's not in insurance and so even introverts do need
even the introverted do need human contact they just need less of it and a certain kind and they've got to control it a little better than other people I will put the photo of this on the blog so

[19:30]

put the photo of this on the blog so that will be part of the process my blog is moved to at Scott and says calm alright somebody says make that segment its own YouTube video please maybe I'll think about that but that's all for today and I will talk to you all later