Your Guide To Achieving Happiness | Arthur Brooks

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What is happiness? So many of us go through life searching for happiness, but avoiding our unhappiness. What if happiness comes from leaning into our suffering and trauma? After all, when you avoid your unhappiness, you’re essentially avoiding your ability to be happy.

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Arthur C. Brooks teaches classes on happiness. But what is happiness anyway?

Some might say Arthur wrote the book on happiness. Well, he’s written 12 of them to be exact. His latest book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, is on the New York Times bestseller list. He travels all over the world speaking about love and happiness. After giving more than 150 speeches and lectures every year, you’d think he’d be done. But, no– Arthur is also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where he teaches classes on leadership and happiness. On top of all that, he’s also a columnist at The Atlantic, where he writes the popular “How to Build a Life” column.

I was so excited to have Arthur on the podcast and discuss the complicated topic of finding happiness. Because that’s what we’re all doing, right? We’re wandering around, making mistakes, trying to figure out how to be happy. But the ironic thing is that in this quest for happiness, we avoid our unhappiness. Trauma and suffering are just as much a part of life as happiness is. If we learn how to lean into unhappiness, into our suffering and trauma, we can use that post-traumatic growth to find our happiness. Arthur knows this better than anyone– he explores it daily. Which is why I was so stoked to explore this topic with him.

In this episode, 

We get into the nitty-gritty of happiness. What is happiness, how to be happier, how to address the things contributing to your unhappiness– all that good stuff! But we also discuss the journey Arthur took to discovering his own happiness, and everything he learned along the way. This was such a fascinating conversation for me. We even dove into my own struggles with happiness. So, if you’re looking for a little happiness in your life, or just want to explore some new perspectives on the subject, take a listen. It would make me really happy if you did.