Episode 53: James Emry – How to increase your happiness [PODCAST]

Today’s guest, James Emry, is the founder of The Best Practice Life and author of the bestselling book Positive-ly Uncertain.  He is an expert on life satisfaction and works with achievement-minded people to help them find outstanding happiness and personal development in the most effortless way possible. In his graduate research at the University of South Carolina, James combined professional leadership science with the emerging field of positive psychology to build advanced individual development methods. He has since focused on sharing the best happiness optimizing practices and “hacks” with his one-on-one clients. In today’s conversation with David, James shares his thoughts about cultures, the dynamics of happiness in the modern world, and how you can deal with the unhappy things in your life.

How focusing on the future can negatively impact your average day

Many times we get stuck in that pattern of waiting for our ship to come in, or waiting for someday when everything will be better. Research is showing that those kinds of tendencies actually detract from happiness on a long term basis. That’s because our focus on the future distracts us from seeing the little but essential things that go into making our current day an enjoyable experience. What happens is that we miss out on the little things that make life happy. Today’s guest, James Emry, has studied the issue of happiness extensively and is with David to share some of the research behind happiness but also some hacks that you can use to make your life happier on a day to day basis. Be sure to listen.

How saying “yes” can help you become happier.

It’s easy to get stuck in your analytical, “what’s the best choice” mindset. It’s out of that mindset that we often say “no” to things that we really have no reason for rejecting. James Emry, today’s guest, suggests that in order to experience more happiness in life one thing we might learn to do is to say “ yes” to more things, especially things that we’re not feeling we want to do in the moment. For example, when you come home from work you may feel like you don’t want to go to a block party and socialize, but if you did, you’d likely have a great time and be glad you went. Learning to partner with others in your life to hold yourself accountable to saying “yes” to the opportunities for happiness in your life could be a huge step toward a more fulfilling happy life.

Exercise your strengths and talents to increase your happiness.

One of the main areas the research points in discovering what makes people happy is that of strengths, skills, and talents. It’s undisputed that people who are busy doing the things they are good at and the things they feel good about are much happier than those who don’t. That’s why so many people find such joy in hobbies and sports – they are things they have developed a skill in and feel good about. So for many people, what they need is not to build habits into their lives that are intended to produce happiness, but rather do the things they want to do that will actually enable them to do the things that make them happy. Does that make sense? Our guest James Emry explains it much better on this episode of Crank It Up.

Take control of your day for more happiness.

As James Emry has researched the issues surrounding happiness and unhappiness he’s found that people who wake up to and give in to the demands of others immediately are not as happy as those who intentionally take ...