The Happiness Formula

Palm Springs, California.  Family vacation. 120F in the shade. As I would on all my vacations, I took some time to take stock of my life and how I was spending my time. Through various life experiences, I, even at a young age, had a deep appreciation for time and the inevitability of death.  This led me to a constant desire to optimize for happiness throughout my life.  From minimizing time where I am upset or angry, to limiting concern regarding things I don’t control, to simply trying to see the bright side to any circumstance.  Prior to this vacation, I had been working hard and not feeling particularly happy, so I sat down while the family was taking a nap after a fun day at the pool and I wrote down my thoughts.

First, I needed to think about what made me happy.  To do this, I thought about who I am, and who I want to be.  A good exercise for this is to picture yourself at your own funeral.  Think about what your guests might say as a eulogy.  What would be the things they remember about you?

I wrote down mine and they were:

• He was a great father
• A supportive and loving husband
• He followed his dreams and left the world a better place
  

As I wrote these down, I thought about easy ways I could track and check in on my progress towards living these statements.  I googled tools, blogs and downloaded apps but none provided the user experience and results I was hoping for.  I wanted something simple, accessible and personalized.

For example, “He was a great father” could be tracked through a few activities I would do as a “great father” (personalized to my definition).

• Did I read to my son?
• Was I home in time for dinner?
• Was I present during the weekend?
  

By simplifying my goal into 3 simple questions, I was able to easily track my progress. As I tracked, I was reminded about how I wanted to spend my time.  This inevitably allowed me to direct my focus to activities that drove up my happiness.

The idea behind “The Happiness Formula” is that you can follow a series of good practices  throughout your daily life that will lead to greater happiness. In future blogs, I will go into more depth and suggest ways you can do this with a few simple free online tools.  We, at Pursuit of Happiness, are also building these into Pursuit, our personal happiness assistant.

Dimitri 

Founder CEO