The Happiness Hypothesis By Jonathan Haidt Top 10 Lessons (Part 2).

If you haven't read part 1 of the top 10 lessons from The Happiness Hypothesis, click here to read it before reading lessons 6-10 down below.




6. Practice being social.

The first point of part two of this blog on The Happiness Hypothesis is to start to work on building closer relationships with the people in your life.  In the book Haidt says that "having strong social relationships strengthens the immune system, extends life (more than does quitting smoking), speeds recovery from surgery, and reduces depression and anxiety disorders."  (Having strong relationships link to your happiness has also been confirmed by Durkheim's diagnosis).

The reason this point stood out to me was because it was a huge eye opener for me.

Although I see myself as being extremely close with my immediate family and a couple of friends, I often times have trouble growing as close as I would like with many of the people that I meet and talk to on a regular basis.

This even affects how social I am with some of my more, distant family.  Maybe you can relate?

This point from the book is massive and I think the reason that this section stopped me in my tracks as I was reading was because I realized that this is something that I need to work on big time if I want to live my happiest and most fulfilled life.

If you are in the same boat, how are some ways you can continue to nurture the close relationships you have?  Maybe you have old friends you haven't spoke to in years, or would like to make new friends.

7. Acceptance & Action.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

Throughout our lifetime, many of us fixate on all of the "bad" things we cannot change about ourselves or our situation.  The classic saying above, is something that we can all use to our benefit.  First we must acknowledge that we are fixating on our "problems", in order to accept them.

As a reader of this blog, you may be all focussed on changing the things that you can change in your life.  But if you don't first accept the things about your life that you cannot change, then even when you change everything you can, you will still feel this state of unhappiness.

I realize that this may be challenging to do, in fact this is something I am currently working on in my own life.  However from my experience, the more I am able to accept what I cannot control, I am able to move faster towards my goals.

As I am writing this blog I realized that over the past few days that I was not accepting my situation I am currently in.  I just got back to Michigan from a nearly 3 month trip to Florida.  Being someone who loves to spend time outside in the warm, sunny weather, I noticed myself getting "triggered" being back in Michigan, and to be honest the first couple days back here I was feeling extremely down about it.

Today I just started to accept my situation a little more and I notice myself feeling better already.  Sure I do still wish I was in Florida, but there are many things in Michigan that I enjoy as well, and I know, deep down that feeling sad about not being in Florida isn't going to change my situation or help me to achieve my goals.

What is something in your life that you need to accept?  Learn to take a step back and look at what is currently a challenge in your life.  Doing this alone will help you learn to accept your situation and move forward from it.

8. Develop your strengths.

Become what it is in your nature to become, realize your potential, and develop your strengths to have the good life.

I believe that we are all born with a certain gift of our own.  We were given this gift to serve the universe as a whole in some way.  Your gift may not be something you are passionate about per se.

A classic example of this is part of Michael Jordan's story.  In short, Michael loved baseball, but his body wasn't built well for being very good as baseball, instead he would have more strength playing basketball (a sport he wasn't as passionate about, but had a better chance of being good at).  By Michael nurturing his strengths, we know him today as one of the greatest basketball players of all time!

By developing your strengths it will be easier to live not only a happy life but a fulfilled one as well.

9. You need love, work, and a higher purpose.

By getting the right relationships, work, and something larger than yourself, a sense of meaning and purpose will emerge.

To feel fulfilled in life, we must have meaningful relationships, as well as work, and be moving towards something bigger than ourselves.  If you are lacking in love, work, or a higher purpose it will be a challenge to move towards where you would like to be in life.

Love is what brings us together, and this goes back to lessons number 6 - being more social.  We must have more close connections with those we care about in our lives to live our happiest life.

Work can either be a huge destroyer of your happiness, or something that amplifies happiness.  If your wake up excited to do your work it is a good sign you are on the right path.  On the flipside, if you wake up every weekday hating your work and wanting to stay in bed rather than go to work, then you will always be unhappy as long as you continue to do that work.

From what I have noticed is that most successful people tie together their work with their higher purpose.

10. We need an Eastern & Western approach to life.

In different times we will benefit more from Eastern or more from Western philosophies.  At one point in life, you may need to sit back and reflect on everything in your life that matters to you.  Other times, you may need to hustle and actively move towards your goals.

Both philosophies are important, and if you neglect either one, your life is sure to be sub-par.

For example, in my own life, I have lately been feeling like I am hitting a wall at certain times, because I am super focused on growing, that I never take the time to work on my spiritual side as much.  Although I have been implementing 20 minutes of meditation per day, I still feel like I need to connect with myself more a couple days per week.  I feel as if I need this time for myself to make what I share 10 times better than it currently is.

Maybe you are in the same boat?  Or maybe you are on the other side, where you need or want to start taking a Western approach?

From what I have noticed so far in my own life, is that whenever I combine these philosophies, I am able to carry out my gift in the best way possible, and make things lighter and easier on myself.

Give it a try yourself, if you are only working, take some time to at least meditate each day.  If you are only meditating or reading but taking no action, start to take a more Western or hustle approach to your day.

Closing thoughts.

I hope that these 10 lessons from The Happiness Hypothesis will be beneficial to you in your very own life.  Comment below which lesson you are going to implement immediately and why you are going to implement that lesson into your life!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Why You Need To Be Grateful For 99% Of Everything You Complain About (The One Thing Nobody Talks About).

The idea for writing this blog came about around two weeks ago.  I one night I went to sleep around 12 a.m. and ended up waking up around 3 a.m.

This is pretty normal for me as I usually wake up once or twice throughout the night.  But this night was different, for some reason I could not get back to sleep even after laying in bed for over an hour.

I ended up feeling pretty aggravated, but decided to start my day after an hour and a half of trying to get back to sleep.  And although I was angry for only getting 3 hours of sleep, after a few hours I accepted it and it got me thinking about the subject of today's blog, which is to have gratitude for most of the complaints you have if you live in a first world county.

A few common complains we often have.

- Losing Wifi
- Traffic
- Waiting "too long" for food

We all have complained about at least one of these one time or another.  And yes they may be real complaints because we are used to living a certain way.  However, in the grand scheme of things, how much do most of our complaints really matter, or help us grow?

The scenario from a couple weeks ago helped me realize that I must recognize my complaints, and instead of complaining, I need to be grateful for having whatever I am complaining about be my biggest worry at that time.

I realized that complaining about getting 3 hours of sleep isn't going to serve me.

Why you can feel lucky in this situation.

The fact that we are able to complain about such minuscule things in our life is a true blessing.  Living in a first world country, we are able to have the luxury to complain about these things.  And often times, most of these complaints are accepted by most people as normal.

So how exactly can you feel lucky during a situation when you feel like complaining?

I'll use my own life as an example.  Almost every time the internet goes out or is taking more than 1.3 seconds to load something I notice myself get mad for a second.  Then I will start to shift my focus on a real problem that affects people in the world (such as someone walking several miles just to get some water).

Now I completely understand that this is an extreme case, but just try it for a second.  Think of something small that you have recently complained about, or a small complaint that is currently on your mind.  Then switch your focus and envisioning yourself having to walk miles to get some water.

Most likely your complaint isn't a big deal anymore, in fact you may even start to laugh that you had that complaint in the first place.

Closing thoughts.

Now I am not saying to never let things bother you, obviously we are all going to be bothered by something.  And it is fine to complain about certain things in our life.  I wrote this to shed some light on this topic because I never really hear people talk about it.  

Although you may still complain about little things in life (its ok I still do to), I hope that this blog has helped you to start to complain about little things less, and improves your life as a whole!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

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