Dan Buettner studies the traits of the happiest people he’s encountered in his journey to find what he calls the Blue Zones, where people live the longest. 

Transcript:

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I’ve become fascinated by the work of Dan Buettner who has studied the most well-lived lives of people around the world for over 15 years as a researcher and writer for National Geographic.  He’s written books on living longer - what he calls the Blue Zones of the world where people live the longest - and traits of the happiest people he’s encountered in his journey.  

Buettner defines happiness as “...a composite of things: health, emotions, the way you evaluate your life, and the extent to which you’re living out your values.”  He goes on to talk about the challenge of wanting to be happy and searching for that, but conveying the depth of happiness is found in meaning not amusement parks.  

This idea of happiness is complex for Buettner.  There is no silver bullet.  He says “I like the idea of thinking about happiness in the same way you think of your retirement portfolio. You want it balanced—the short term and long term, stocks and bonds. The hell-bent pursuit of purpose kind of loses the point a little bit, because there is value in the sum of positive emotions we experience every day.” 

Wow, so he’s saying we can’t be on this path to achieve so much purpose that we don’t stop to enjoy the flowers along the way. 

I’ve actually seen this in real life.  Do you know someone that has worked so hard for a goal and then achieved that goal and didn’t have the outcome of happiness they were expecting.  I know I have.  Heck, that’s been me.  It’s what our brains do.  In episode 179 we discussed the idea that our mind plays tricks on us and we think we’ll be so much happier when we achieve that thing, but we’re just not. 

I’m just digging into Buettner’s happiness research, but he seems to be saying that we need to be reminded that happiness is the sum of all its parts. That’s someone we’ll be chewing over here at Everyday Happiness as we continue to explore the question:  What is happiness?

Inspired by this article in The Atlantic.  

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/10/get-rid-of-everything/543384/

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