Dr. Laurie Santos on happiness: "An easy happiness hack is to become more social."

People are questioning whether their

career path is the kind of thing that's going to make them happy.

— Laurie Santos

Sometimes it feels like everything is awful, all of the time . There’s the pandemic, and climate change. Economic uncertainty. If I forget about any of it for five minutes, my phone reminds me. I find myself doom-scrolling mindlessly, my heart thumping fast in my chest. Does this happen to you?

I’ve come to think of this as ambient anxiety. And it’d be easy to think this feeling is endemic—that it’s here to stay.

That’s why I’ve recently become obsessed with happiness—not as a state, but as a practice. We practice worrying constantly, without even thinking about it. I want to challenge you today to think about how to let go of some of your worry, to cultivate happiness.?

Today’s guest is Dr. Laurie Santos . Laurie is the cognitive scientist who teaches a course called Psychology and the Good Life at Yale. From the day she announced the class, it became Yale’s most popular, and you can now take it for free on Coursera . I invited Laurie to the studio because, to be really honest, I wanted a playbook for my own happiness. And, she brought it. But like any exercise plan or diet regimen, a commitment to joy takes effort.

???Office Hours: Happiness, redux

So, community. How happy ARE you feeling? After listening to this episode, what’s something new you might be inclined to do to increase your happiness? Let’s talk about it. And we’ll do our community gratitude practice, too. Join us this Wednesday at 3pm EST for Office Hours. You can find us on the LinkedIn News Page, or email us at [email protected] for a link.

?? Coming (out) soon: The Family Outing

My new memoir comes out next week ! And it's all starting to feel like it might really be happening. A few days ago, a large box of books arrived in the mail. It wasn't labeled, and I didn't know what was in it when the kids tore into it. My son picked it up, looked it over, and announced it was for him. He's not entirely wrong. I wrote this book so that one day my children will understand what I think it may mean to live an authentic life. I wrote it so they may have the opportunity, in ways I can't yet imagine, to do the same. I hope you'll check it out.