The Happiness Hypothesis By Jonathan Haidt Top 10 Lessons (Part 1)

After re-reading The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, I have found a few key lessons that will help you to grow happier in your own life.

When I first read this book a couple of years back, I did not understand much of it and the text went over my head for the most part.  

After reading it the second time through I found between 20-30 parts of the book that really spoke to me.

I compiled a list of the top 10 lessons from the book and wanted to share 5 of them with you here today in part 1 of the top 10 lessons from The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt!

1. Play your role in the universe.

"The message of the Bhagavad Gita (a central text of Hinduism) is that you can't quit the game entirely; you have a role to play in the functioning of the universe, and you must play that role.  But you should do it in the right way, without being attached to the "fruits" or outcomes of your action."

If you are a follower of Ganifit, you know that I have talked on this same subject over the past few months.  I strongly believe that we all have our own role in this life.  Sadly most of us don't even try to play that role, because we try to follow what others say we should do.

But for one minute, take out the time here before reading on to really think of how much better your own life, the lives of those you deeply care for, and the world as a whole will be if you start or continue to take action on your gift to the universe.

Each and everyone one of us has a role to play.  To be exceptional in our lives.  You were put here at this specific time for a reason.  You have some gift and some role to play.  

This quote from The Happiness Hypothesis is one of the best ways to realize how to be happier in your own life.  

Personally I find that whenever I am doing an activity that allows me to play my role in the universe that I always end up feeling happier, during that time and the rest of my day.  




As an example, as I write this blog I feel good while writing because I am sharing something that I know is going to help you live your life a little bit happier.

What is it for you?  Have you been practicing your role in the universe, or do you need to start your role in the universe?

2. Acknowledge the fault.

This one is going to be hard for many of you.  That is ok, it is hard for me and everyone else on Earth to acknowledge their own faults.

Think of it like this.  As an example, how often do you notice other people slacking off in some way?  Maybe its with their workouts, diet, or playing video games for hours on end, or watching too much TV.  

Now I mentioned that, you probably thought of other people that do these same exact things.  But how often do you notice yourself do the same?

It is always going to be easier to notice when others make mistakes than when you make a mistake.  It is human nature.

Haidt suggests that if we acknowledge our own faults that it will be painful at first, but by digging into the faults we will be rewarded with a flash of pleasure and a hint of pride.  Similar to the feeling you get when you pull a splinter from your skin.  

I believe this is not only important for happiness, but to live a better life as a whole.  If you are able to acknowledge your own faults it will also be able to help you with lesson number 1 (play your role in the universe) as you will get to know yourself better.

3. Know your baseline state.

Haidt suggests that when something good happens to us, or something bad happens to us, that we will eventually go back to feeling the way that we feel most of the time.

You can think of this in terms of when you have bought something that you have wanted.  For a while, you will feel a sense of a rush once you bought this thing.  But after a while you notice yourself go back to your baseline way of feeling.

The opposite is also true.  If for example this same thing that you really wanted was to be damaged.  You may be devastated for a while, but then go right back to your baseline state.

Why I believe this lesson is huge is because by knowing our baseline state (the way we feel most of the time) we will from there be able to find ways to increase that baseline.

A couple ways to do this that are described in The Happiness Hypothesis are through meditation, cognitive therapy, and prozac.

Personally, I can only speak on meditation and what I have felt from doing meditation on a regular basis.  (If you have done cognitive therapy, or use prozac, I would love to hear how they work for you!)

I have just started to get back into 20 minutes of meditation per day like I used to do.  Although as of writing this I have only done 2 days in a row.  When I would mediate in the past, every single day, I noticed that it would help me to be more patient, calm, and centered in my daily life.  

I find that after about 5 days of meditating I start to notice these benefits in my own life, but once I fall off I start to notice that my baseline state gets lower.  When I make time to meditate every single day, my baseline is higher.  I am also able to come from a better space more often than when I do not meditate.

4. Happiness comes from within / focus on what you can control.

One of the easiest ways I have found to feel unhappy and stressed is by focussing on the things that I can not control.  Every time I do this simple action, I always find myself stressing out.

Focusing on what you can not control not only stresses you out but also is just a plain waste of time and energy.

I know there are different degrees to this, some things you can not control are bigger than others. 

As an example, if you have bad eyesight, would you sit there and complain about how bad your eyes are (something you can't control).  Or would you go get your eyes checked and get glasses, contacts, or eye surgery (something you can control).

The first option will make you unhappy and feel like a victim.  The latter will put you in control of your eyes and help you see like normal.


5. Turn inward.

For part one of this blog, I believe this is the one lesson that would bring these points from The Happiness Hypothesis together.  

As humans we must share our life from inwards out.  What Haidt believes will cause unhappiness is by making the world conform to your will.

This way of thinking that the world revolves around us is a guaranteed way to live an unhappy and unfulfilled life.  

Once we start to turn inward (a great way is through meditation) we start to notice that we are actually the creators of our own world.  Instead of trying to make everything work our way, for ourselves, we must first turn inwards.  Once we turn inwards towards our true selves, we will have true inner growth.

With this inner growth we will then be able to spread it throughout the universe (the opposite of making the world / universe conform to us, which is a form up taking rather than expanding).

Closing thoughts.

I hope that you have gained massive value from these first 5 lessons from The Happiness Hypothesis.  By implementing at least one these lessons into you life today, you will without a doubt start to notice a positive change in how you feel throughout the day!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Why I Will No Longer Consider Myself A Hard Gainer And Why You Should Do The Same.

Over the time I have created the Ganifit blog and Youtube channel I have been considering myself a hard gainer, and using the term "hard gainer" in several blogs and videos.  And this is great, it may give you something to connect with, and is an easy term to understand.

The problem I am having with using this term is I feel, for myself, that as long as I consider myself a hard gainer, I will always have some kind of trouble for gaining muscle.

However I may still use this term in some of my videos and blogs so it is easy for you to find what you are looking for when you search for something such as "How to gain muscle as a hard gainer".

The reason I am going to no longer consider myself a hard gainer is because over the time that I have started my personal journey, I have always been considering myself a hard gainer.  Which from the books I have read, podcasts I have listened to, and Youtube videos I have watch over this time, I have heard many people talk about small barriers that block people from becoming successful in their given field.  Many of us aren't even aware that we are blocking ourselves, but from what I have heard from several people that I consider successful, is that we are what we think of ourselves as.

So if I am always calling myself a "hard gainer" then I will always have trouble gaining muscle and this will be who I think I am supposed to be in my subconscious.  But for an example, if I flip the language I use and start to perceive myself as a bodybuilder, then I will find it easier to gain muscle, and train more like a bodybuilder would train, eat like a bodybuilder would eat, etc.

How this can apply to your life.

What I am talking about here, not only applies to how you perceive yourself in terms of health and fitness, but how you perceive yourself in any area of life.

To name a few common things many people think about themselves, maybe you are always thinking deep down you "always mess things up" "just can't lose weight" or "I'm never good enough"

If you are currently carrying any type of language that is limiting yourself from living your best life, I want you to write it down right now, whatever it is just accept it for the moment.  Next I want you to write down one belief for each limiting belief that could break your limiting beliefs.

If you have one limiting belief that is OK, if you have 1,000 that is also OK.  

Once your have identified a way to flip your limiting beliefs to beliefs that will work for you and serve you along your journey, just start by implementing one empowering belief into your life.

How implementing empowering beliefs will change your life.

By identifying your limiting beliefs, writing them down, and implementing empowering beliefs, you will be making things easier on yourself.  You will no longer have to keep hitting the wall you are currently hitting.  Instead you will blast right through that wall, crumbling it into a million pieces.

Now by no means am I saying your goals are just going to be a walk in the park and all rainbows, where you can just sit there and wait for things to happen.  But by taking away these limiting beliefs and replacing them with empowering beliefs, along with taking action towards your goals, it will feel a lot easier than it has in the past.

As an example, as I write this blog I also wrote down my limiting beliefs on the notes app on my phone.  I found that one of my limiting beliefs was being a "bad writer" because most of the time in school I would rarely get A's on writing assignments.  But by doing the exercise of making this limiting belief and empower one, I switched that I was a "bad writer" into "my writing positively impacts billions of people around the world".  Now although this may not be true for the current moment in my life (as I don't yet have an audience of that many people) it has rewired my mind to write as if I already am writing to that many people.  And if I view my these blogs as something that is a positive impact on the world I am also going to be writing with more emotion.

Closing thoughts.

It has taken me years to actually implement this into my own life.  Which I know has in turn set me back years in terms of where I could be today if I actually implemented this mindset when I first heard about it.  I wrote this in hopes that you will implement this today, instead of waiting years, and wasting your own time by having limiting beliefs, that make you stay right where you are and stop you from achieving your goals.

Although I have neglected this in the past, I wanted to write this as a way to share my own experience, in hopes that it will help you to take action today to live your best, healthiest life!

Join me along this journey, and lets start to grow together.

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Why I Started Adding 1 Set To Each Exercise (From Skinny To Bodybuilder).

I really wanted to start to share with you a tip that I am currently testing at this time in my life.  I am testing this because I believe it is always a good idea to test new things to find stuff that might work better for you in your life.

Over the next couple months I am going to be testing this strategy out, of adding one more set to each of my exercises (accounting for about 8 extra sets per workout since I do approximately 8 exercises per workout in the gym).

I am hoping this helps me grow muscle faster since I will be training my muscle groups 25% more than I have been over the past year or so.  One reason I am doing this to get to 165 lbs as fast as possible in a healthy way, but another, even more important reason is that by adding these extra sets to my workouts, I have already noticed I am pushing myself a little bit more in my daily life with the other activities I do, including writing this blog right now.  Because I didn't even plan on writing this today, I was going to plan it for another day.

What can you gain from doing this?

Imagine yourself right now, instead of walking out of the gym just doing the bare minimum, and feeling the same as you always do, imagine yourself walking out of the gym head held high, feeling like the champ you really are!

You may currently be saying to yourself "that sounds really cool Brian, but how is this going to help me?"

Besides being able to have more courage to push yourself more, you will feel like a champ the second you walk out of that gym.

It is very easy to get stuck in a workout routine and always just do the same thing over and over with no change whatsoever.  The second you decided to push yourself and add some more sets you may start to say "This is going to take too long"  or  "Doing this much of a workout is too exhausting".  But the second you complete your workout, how do you think you will feel by proving to yourself that you can complete it?

Only you can answer this for yourself.  However I would like to share with you exactly how I feel after completing my workouts over the past week by implementing this strategy into my lifting.

I have been in the gym 4 days in the past 7 days, and each day I implemented this technique.  3 out of the 4 days were super productive for me outside of the gym.  The only day I didn't feel to great was Saturday, but I think I just woke up on the "wrong side of the bed" if you will, for achieving my goals.  Regardless of this, I still felt amazing during my workout and after accomplishing what I set out to accomplish during that workout.

Closing thoughts.

I am hoping this becomes a useful part of your life.  First start out with pushing yourself a little more in your workouts, and then after a while start to carry this same philosophy into other areas of your life as well.

If you have gained massive value from reading, and implementing this into your workout I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on how much it has made a positive impact on your life as a whole!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

My Vision For Ganifit Over The Next 3-5 Years.

After recently achieving my goal of weighing 135 pounds (gaining roughly 10 pounds of muscle) I have decided that my new goal is going to be something that to me is really epic.

After gaining this muscle, I noticed that for myself I would love to be able to take the next few years working up to somewhere around 165 pounds of lean muscle.  I feel that the next 3-5 years of testing trial and error, as well as putting on this amount of muscle that I will be able to gain enough knowledge and experience to one day help you not only achieve your goal, but to also help you realize that your goal is achievable even if it looks far away.

Right now gaining 30 pounds seems nearly impossible, but for myself I see it as possible to be achieved because my "why" is big enough.

Gaining an extra 30 pounds means that I will be literally adding 1/4 of my current bodyweight to myself.

I am hoping that by gaining this 30 lbs of muscle naturally, that it will be used as a way to influence billions of people to achieve their dream body, whatever that may be.  And that my story of coming from being overweight by 25 pounds, to losing that fat, to currently gaining another 30 pounds of muscle will, in the future, be of tremendous benefit to you reading this right now.

The second big thing I am going to achieve for my body is flexibly.  Over the years I have always been neglecting stretching, and I deal with a lot of my muscles being extremely tight (mostly all my leg muscles and occasionally my back).

I know that down the road, if I don't change this that it will end up leading to pain in my body that I wouldn't like to have as I get older.

My flexibility is another area of my body that needs a lot of work, but I know I can loosen up some of that tension by stretching and incorporating yoga into my routine at least 3 days per week (or more) for now.

I am hoping that by following along with my monthly physique updates, that they will act as inspiration for you to achieve your own unique fitness goals, whatever they may be.

Whether you are just starting out or have been on a journey of your own I know that the vision I hold for Ganifit will be of massive value and impact for your life.

I know that we all come from different walks of life, and we all have different fitness journey's.  But wherever you are, whatever your goals are, I am hoping you connect with my story and that my story is able to help and guide you along your own unique journey.

Closing thoughts.

I have already been taking action on these goals as I was writing this blog.  And I can say that having a goal this big for my weight has been helping me take more action in the gym during my workouts.  So far I have been implementing 1 extra set for even single exercise I do in the gym, which I hope in time will bring better and faster results.

I wrote this in hopes that you will follow along for the next few years.  Make the journey your own, learn from what I do, maybe learn what to do and what not to do, but follow along and lets continue on our journey's together!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Bodybuilding Journey Physique Update 2.

Today I want to share with you my second physique update blog.  I am going to share with you the good and the bad that I have noticed over the past month and a half or so, and what I am going to continue doing and what I am going to change.

First I would like to start off with the good.  

I have noticed an overall improvement in my physique.  Mainly in my arms and legs.  Which used to be the hardest muscles for me to grown.  Now that I have been trying different exercises, I have been able to find out what is working best for growth in these areas.

This is going to be very helpful along my journey as I will be able to not only grow my limbs faster than before, but hopefully give you some useful ways to grow yours faster as well!

The bad

The one muscle group I need to work on better is my back.  It seems as if I gained no muscle at all.  But I also did put on a little bit of fat, which showed up on my back as well as my stomach.  

So the first thing I am going to work on is implementing one or 2 more back exercises into my back routine and see if that helps it grow a little bit more over the next month.

The other thing, is that I am going to still eat a good amount of food, but not as much as I was over the last month and half.  I noticed that when I have peanut butter, I tend to over eat it.  So although I love peanut butter in shakes, on apples, or even just by the spoonful, I am either only going it to buy it every other week, or use enough per day to last me 2 weeks.

Closing thoughts.

I hope that this blog inspired you to start a physique progress challenge of your own, not only to hold yourself accountable, but to create the change in your physique that you would be proud to see!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

How A Near Death Experience Can Improve Your Life! (See Life As A Blessing).

What gave me the idea to write this today was something my family and I started talking about 3-4 days ago.

Long story short, about 12 years ago, I ended up choking on calamari or octopus.  This experience at the time was very traumatic for me and impacted me for a few months after I ended up choking.  For somewhere between 3-6 months after I couldn't swallow any food without drinking a beverage with my food.

I would chew my food take a sip of water or pop, and then swallow my food.  The only exception was mashed potatoes and other soft foods.

Maybe you have had a near death experience yourself and survived from it.  Yours may have even been way worse than mine.

But since the other day I have been thinking at least once per day about this subject, and how a near death experience can actually be of benefit to our lives.  Yes I know this may sound kind of out there but I believe these experiences to be a blessing.  They really help you value your life more than you would if you wouldn't have had them.

What do I mean by this?

First off, it makes you realize any moment really could be your last moment here on Earth.  This doesn't mean to always be panicking and scared, but it means that you will end up wanting to achieve more.  And with this philosophy that I am going to share with you today, you are going to feel more gratitude as well as ambition in your daily life.

If you have had a near death experience I want you to think back on it for a moment.  Then I want you to realize how lucky you are to be alive today.  That in order for you to be alive right now God or the Universe has a plan for you.  This means there is a reason for you to be alive in this vey moment.

If you start to look at your life in this way (as a blessing) then you will start to realize your motivation and potential more and more.  Even if you don't currently know your purpose in life, following this VERY important blog will help you to put together the pieces.  Thinking of life as a blessing will help you to start even if you don't know exactly where you are headed yet.  It won't only help you to start, but will help you to keep going!

Closing thoughts.

This is one of the most important blogs I have written to this day.  It is not only focussed on mindset but on action as well, and I know that by following exactly what I said in the above paragraphs you will not only be able to change your own life for the better, but you will positively make an impact on those around as well as the rest of the world!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

The 5 Most Important Lessons From How To Win Friends & Influence People (Book Review).

Today I want to share with you the 5 most impactful points from How To Win Friends And Influence People.  After reading the book a second time through, I had approximately 40+ different key lessons marked in this book and narrowed the most important lessons down to 5 points that will change your life for the better.

Appreciation.

Carnegie states that "One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation."  This struck as the first big lesson to me while reading the book.

Think of how easy it is to see when someone messes up, and notice that individuals flaws.  But on the flip-side, how often do you notice when those same people around you do something great?  On top of that, how often are you appreciating their success?

Appreciation is something most people neglect in their lives that is dramatically holding them back when it comes to influencing people.

The first thing you MUST start doing is focussing on when those around you do something well and giving them appreciation for it, instead of being focussed on something they did wrong.

Look at the other persons point of view.

I have talked on this same subject in the past, but I feel I must continue to say it, not just as a reminder to you but also as a reminder to myself.  It seems as if everyone has trouble putting themselves in someone else's shoes.

We are all mostly consumed with how we feel rather than looking at the other persons point of view.  The second you get out of your own mind and feel for someone else it will be much easier for the 2 of you to connect on a deeper level.

Of all 5 lessons on this blog, this one will probably be the hardest to learn because it is always easier to see things from our own perspective rather than someone else's.

Make the other person feel important.

In the book one of the main points that really stuck out to me was to make the other person feel important.  Dale Carnegie states something that Andrew Carnegie did when he, and George Pullman "were battling each other for supremacy in the railroad sleeping car business."

Carnegie had decided to try to work together with Pullman and merge their interests, instead of working against each other.  But what got Pullman to give Carnegie a chance on the merge, wasn't only that Carnegie wanted to work together with him, but by the fact that Carnegie was going to name their company "The Pullman Palace Car Company".

Who wouldn't want someone to name something of great importance after themselves?  Wouldn't you feel important if someone was to do this for you?

I cannot express how important this point is for the relationships with people that you care about.  You don't have to do something as big as naming a company after someone else, but you could do something as small as giving someone a surprise gift to show them that they are important to you and have importance in your life.

End hatred with love.

"Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love" - Buddha

Today many of us, when presented with an argument with someone will try to argue back, which in turn only escalates the situation.  We can argue and scream and yell all we want but usually all that will do is make matters worse.

If you are trying to get your point across by arguing with someone else, they will never want to see your point of view.  Carnegie states that you could be 100% in the right about the situation but if you argue and argue, the other person will still never want to connect with your point of view.

Instead if you start to first put yourself in his or her shoes and sympathize with him or her, then they will be more likely to start to see where you are coming from and may even agree with you completely in the end.


Change "but" to "and".

This last lesson from the book is one of the biggest takeaways I have found out of all the books I have read so far in my life.

Carnegie says "that many people offer their criticism with a sincere phrase followed by the word 'but' and ending with a critical statement."

As an example he uses what parents might say to change a child's careless attitude toward his studies.

"We're really proud of you, Johnnie, for raising your grades this term.  But if you had worked harder on your algebra, then the results would have been better."

Instead if they were to say, "We're really proud of you, Johnnie, for raising your grades this term, and by continuing the same conscientious efforts next term, your algebra grade can be up with all the others."  How do you think Johnnie would feel?

By giving a complement followed by the word "but" it is kind of a slap in the face to the person we are talking to.

The example with Johnnie will be able to work for everyone because every single person likes to feel encouraged when they do something good in their life. The encouragement with the word "and"  will then lead to that person continuing to believe in themselves, and will help them to know that they are improving.

Closing thoughts.

I hope you gained massive value from the 5 most important lessons from How To Win Friends & Influence People!  This book is by far one of the must read books if you are someone who wants to get better at interacting with the people around you.

If you have read the book already, be sure to comment a lesson that I may have left out that you found to be impactful in your life.

If you haven't read the book yet, which of these lessons stuck out the most to you, and how will you implement that lesson in your life today?

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

If you would like to get your very own copy of the book, or if someone you know would love this book as a Christmas gift, click the link below!