The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

by Neil Pasricha

“For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

We scan the world for problems because that led to our survival.

We scan the world for problems because that led to our survival.

Rather than find good results and make them better, our brains do this: Look for problem. Find problem. Improve problem.

Rather than find good results and make them better, our brains do this: Look for problem. Find problem. Improve problem.

Viktor Frankl says, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Viktor Frankl says, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

“I am convinced that life is 10% what happens and 90% how I react to it.”

“I am convinced that life is 10% what happens and 90% how I react to it.”

10% of our happiness is what happens to us.

10% of our happiness is what happens to us.

The American Psychosomatic Society published a study showing how Michael Babyak and a team of doctors found that three thirty-minute brisk walks or jogs even improve recovery from clinical depression. Yes, clinical depression.

The American Psychosomatic Society published a study showing how Michael Babyak and a team of doctors found that three thirty-minute brisk walks or jogs even improve recovery from clinical depression. Yes, clinical depression.

What does the 20-Minute Replay do? It helps us remember things we like about people and experiences in our lives.

What does the 20-Minute Replay do? It helps us remember things we like about people and experiences in our lives.

The happiest nuns lived ten years longer than the least happy nuns. By age eighty, the most happy group had lost only 25% of its population, whereas the least happy group had lost 60%. 54% of the most happy nuns reached the age of ninety-four, compared to 15% of the least happy nuns.

The happiest nuns lived ten years longer than the least happy nuns. By age eighty, the most happy group had lost only 25% of its population, whereas the least happy group had lost 60%. 54% of the most happy nuns reached the age of ninety-four, compared to 15% of the least happy nuns.

When you’re not doing it for you . . . you’re not doing a good job.

When you don’t feel like you’re competing with others, you compete only with yourself. You do it for you. And you do more, go further, and perform better.

‘good’ and ‘bad’ of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter.

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

Find what’s hidden, stop apologizing, and accept yourself.

“If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy. All you have done is hurt yourself. If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead.

None of us can control our emotions. We can only control our reactions to our emotions.

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

Being alive means you’ve already won the lottery.

Why do we have these ikigais? They are a reason to get up in the morning. With an ikigai card when you wake up . . . you know where you’re going.

Why did we think this was a good idea? Who came up with this plan? The Germans. Yes, it was their invention of retirement completely out of the blue in 1889 that established the concept for all of us. Retirement was meant to free up jobs for young people by paying those sixty-five years and older to do nothing till they died. But there was one big difference between 1889 Germany and the world we live in today. The average life span was sixty-seven years old.

We don’t actually want to do nothing. We just want to do something we love.

Flash-forward and this moment of clarity was the secret to fixing the telescope and allowing it to function to this day. Jim wasn’t working late on Friday. He wasn’t in the lab all weekend. He was in the shower on vacation, allowing his brain the space to relax. When it wasn’t told what to do, it did its own thing.

Creating space in our minds allows thoughts to swish and swirl around without us stirring them with a wooden spoon. They are free. They fly in different directions. And we often like the taste of what comes back.

He simply made better decisions, by making fewer decisions, by reserving his decision-making energy for things that mattered.

When we are presented with too many decisions, we either: Do nothing. Our brains are exhausted, so we stop making decisions completely. We walk out in protest! This is what happens on forms where you need to pick one of twenty-five different investment funds for your pension or twenty-six varieties of shampoo. What do people do? Ignore them all. Go with the default. We are so tired by this point we quit completely.

You can’t believe how hard it is for people to be simple, how much they fear being simple. They worry that if they’re simple, people will think they’re simpleminded. In reality, of course, it’s just the reverse. Clear, tough-minded people are the most simple.”

What’s the counterintuitive secret to having more time? Chop the amount of time you have to do it.

“Delay is the deadliest form of denial,”

Block access. Protect your brain. Guard it. Remove all entry points to your brain except a single one you can control. In addition to Roger’s approach to email, I learned later that he didn’t have a desk phone, personal email address, or any social media accounts. Fuel your brain and let it run wild by removing access points. Close the doors and lock the windows, but answer the bell.

How do you add an hour to your day with only one small change? Remove access. Close the doors. Lock the windows. And pick the bell you will answer and focus on. Delete and remove all access to yourself except for that one. Watch as your productivity spikes, your days become more productive, and you create beautiful space.

How to make every decision at twice the speed? Remove choice. What’s the counterintuitive way to having more time? Remove time. How to add an hour to the day with only one small change? Remove access.

Because life is short. Time is fleeting. And you will never be as young as you are right now. So develop extra space by Removing Choice, Removing Time, and Removing Access, and nurture that space, that powerful space, so it fills your mind and time and life with contentment, freedom, and happiness.

same signs we all experience. In order to do something, we need to think we can do it first and then we need to want to do it second. Then what happens? We do it. We tell ourselves that this is how we get anything done.

Action causes motivation.

It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting. Now go forward. Just do it.

There is nothing more satisfying than being loved for who you are and nothing more painful than being loved for who you’re not but pretending to be.

It’s not always comfortable at the beginning, but it’s always comfortable at the end.

But any misalignment between what you’re doing and what you want to do allows a dull and invisible unhappiness to fester.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”