I’ve always taken the approach that you don’t do something to become happy — you are happy, and great things happen. Happiness is a super power that we all have in us. Admittedly this is a very tough mindset to keep, so I brought an expert on the topic: my good friend Vanessa Van Edwards.

Vanessa bills herself as a “behavioral investigator” - what that means is that she is absolutely amazing at unpacking what makes people do the things they do and turning that into proven, actionable techniques. She’s written for publications like CNN, Fast Company and Forbes and is the author of the new (and incredibly good) book “Captivate: The Science Of Succeeding With People.” You’ve heard me talk many times about the critical importance of soft skills in building a successful career as a creator, and Vanessa is THE authority on this mega-important topic.

You might be thinking happiness can be a bit of a soft topic. It’s the age old question right? What’s the secret to happiness? We’re all on that journey, and what Vanessa so masterful does is use research backed studies to help us zero in on what really matters to us, how we cultivate that more, and bring awareness to the things that might be negatively affecting our happiness.

In today’s episode,

• 45% of people largest source of unhappiness is feeling unfulfilled. But here’s the thing - If you never prioritize your happiness, no one else will.
• Why the “When / Then mindset” never works … When I _____ then I’ll be happy. We don’t need to put off happiness for “someday”
• Our brain is wired for the negative bias, which helps keep us safe, but when we’re constantly scanning for things that could be wrong it totally blocks us from enjoying the good. We’re our own buzzkill. The good news is even though our brain is wired for it, but we can re-wire it.

The material in her course goes much deeper than what I was able to share here, and I highly recommend you go check her class on CreativeLive if you want more. I also encourage you to check out the large number of free materials available for download that can help you audit your current happiness level, as well as some powerful tools to maximize your happiness.

Remember, happiness does not happen because we are successful, success happens because we are happy.

Enjoy!

Today's episode is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.