How To Be Happier In 5 Steps With Zero Weird Tricks | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

1. 0:00 – 1:01

   Happiness as an “inside job”: why external conditions can’t be the foundation

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

      In this video, I'm gonna share with you what I believe the core ingredients of happiness are and show you how you can work on them and get better at them. See, so many of us think that happiness is something that just happens to us when everything in our life just happens to be right, when it's sunny, when our email inbox happens to be manageable, when our boss treats us nicely, when there's no queue at the coffee shop, right? All these things are nice, no doubt, but I don't think they're ultimately what happiness truly is, and it's a very vulnerable position to be in if you think that you can only be happy when things in your external environment go the way in which you want them to. And how often are things always gonna go the way you want them to? They're not. This, for me, is one of the biggest misunderstandings about happiness. It's an inside job. It's something that we can cultivate within ourselves to

2. 1:01 – 4:04

   The Core Happiness Stool: the three ingredients to work on

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:01

      some degree irrespective of external circumstances, and when you truly understand that and you know what to work on, you will start to be happier. Now, in my previous book, HAPPY MIND HAPPY LIFE, I outlined a model of happiness that I call the Core Happiness Stool, and it's a three-legged stool, okay? And each of the legs is a critical ingredient for happiness. Now, each of the ingredients in and of themselves are not enough, right? You need all three of them worked on so that stool is stable and not unbalanced. And what I've seen time and time again is that you don't directly work on your happiness. You work on those three ingredients, and the side effect is that you're happier more often. So what are these crucial ingredients for happiness? Well, there's three of them; alignment, contentment, and control. Okay, I'm gonna explain what each of those are and what they mean. Alignment is basically when the person who you are on the inside and the person who you are being on the outside are one and the same, okay? That's alignment, when your inner values and your external actions start to match up, okay? So that's alignment. The second leg on this three-legged stool is contentment. What are those things that I can do in life that help me feel calm, peaceful, and give me that sense of contentment? Okay, that's the second leg. And the third leg, and one of the legs which I think these days is probably one of the most important, is control. Now, I'm not talking about controlling the world. The world is fundamentally uncontrollable, but I'm talking about a sense of control. What are those things that you can do in your life each day, if possible, that give you a sense of control? Because we know from the scientific research that people who have a sense of control over their lives, they're healthier, they have better relationships, they earn more money, but they're also happier. So that sense of control is really, really important. So happiness is a skill that we can all get better at if we know what to work on, and so far I mentioned that there are three key ingredients; alignment, contentment, and control, okay? You don't work on happiness. You work on alignment, on contentment, and on control, and in this video I'm gonna share how exactly you can do that. And the side effect, the consequence of working on those three things, is that you're gonna be happier more often. I do it myself, right? And at this stage in my life, I've never felt so good. Genuinely, I feel happy. I feel calm. I have this sense

3. 4:04 – 5:35

   Core happiness vs. “junk happiness”: pleasure isn’t the same as peace

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:04

      of inner peace that I haven't had before, and it feels absolutely amazing. But I've also shared these tips with so many people and many of my patients over the years, and it's really helped them, and my honest hope is that these tips also help you. Now, I mentioned that term, the Core Happiness Stool. Why did I do that? Well, because I contrast two different forms of happiness, right? There's core happiness, C-O-R-E, core happiness, and I contrast that with something called junk happiness. So what's junk happiness? Well, junk happiness are those, those habits, those behaviors that we can engage with that we think make us happy. It could be chocolate, ice cream, shopping, whatever it might be, okay? And there's nothing inherently wrong with them. The problem is if we engage in them too often and for too long, and we make the big mistake of thinking they're gonna bring us that true inner what I call core happiness, and they're not. Okay, so what is core happiness? Core happiness is the happiness that I think we're all wanting. I think when we think about what it means to live a happy life, we're talking about core happiness, that, that deep sense of peace and calm and contentment that we can go about the world with, knowing that some days are gonna be better than others. Sometimes bad things are gonna happen, but that's okay because we've got the tools and resources

4. 5:35 – 7:37

   Alignment in real life: authenticity, grief, and rejecting toxic positivity

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:35

      to handle them. When I say core happiness, I'm not talking about waking up with a smile on your face every day. For me, that's not what happiness is, right? It really isn't. Happiness is something much deeper than that, something much more long-lasting than that. Let me give an example, right? I mentioned those three ingredients, alignment, contentment, and control, right? Alignment is when you are being in the outside world the person who you really are on the inside. Okay, let's take something that many people- Most people, maybe all people find distressing the death of a loved one. Now, I've experienced that. My dad died 11 years ago. I know what that feels like. It was, like I'm sure you can imagine, maybe you've been through it yourself, a really difficult experience, but nonetheless, an experience I've learnt a lot from. If we just take that alignment leg of that three-legged stool, alignment is when you are being out there in the world the person who you really are. So there's a lot of talk these days about something called toxic positivity. Right? So let's say someone close to you has died or is really sick. It's okay to feel bad about that. It's okay to feel upset. That's completely fine. And if you can express that to your friend, if you're lucky enough to have a friend, say, "Hey, yeah, you know, I'm feeling really bad about things. You know, I really miss that person," whatever it might be, you are working on your core happiness. You're not denying your reality and trying to be something you're not. You're not saying, "Oh, you know, it's fine. These things happen." No, you're actually, you're actually at one with your inner feelings and expressing them to the people around you. That's alignment. That's one component of alignment that's really, really important. But ... And, and this, I think, is one of the big problems with happiness. We've been sold this idea that happiness is waking up

5. 7:37 – 9:41

   Cultural myths: the “billboard life” and confusing success with happiness

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:37

      with a smile on your face every morning. There are these cultural ideas out there that really get in the way of our ability to actually be happy. I mean, we see that billboard image, don't we, of the good-looking couple with their two beautiful children on the sandy beach with the ocean behind them, with the sun just coming down. You know, and we're sold that idea that that's happiness, right? Now, don't get me wrong. If you're able to experience that, I'm sure that is part of a happy life, no question. That sounds like a very pleasant experience, be with your family on a beach with a sea, with the sun setting behind you. But that's not what real happiness is about. It can be a component of it, but if we think we have to achieve that in order to be happy, we're gonna be very disappointed, which is why I feel so many people are struggling these days. They feel lost. They feel empty. They don't have any motivation, and they feel that happiness is out of reach, but it really isn't. Happiness is a skill that you can get better at no matter where you are in life right now if you know what to work on. Okay? So I spoke there about these cultural ideas of happiness which get in the way. I think one of the big ones for me is we confuse happiness with success. Do you think you've ever confused happiness with success? I mean, this is very, very common. I have seen so many patients over the years who work themselves into the ground, who kept working evenings, weekends, not taking holidays, pushing, pushing, pushing. They already had enough. They already had a house. They could feed their kids. They could go on a holiday once a year or twice a year, but they kept pushing, right? They wanted more because in their head in some level they thought that more would lead to happiness,

6. 9:41 – 12:12

   Why “more” doesn’t work: hedonic adaptation and the “wants brain”

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee9:41

      but it doesn't, right? It really doesn't. And that's an idea that really messes with our heads and gets in the way of that inner contentment and peace that we all want. Now, it's a very idea to get seduced by, that more money, a better holiday, a nicer car is gonna make you happier. But there's many reasons why that doesn't work. First of all, there's something called hedonic adaptation. So basically we very quickly adapt to our new set of circumstances, and you'll probably have experienced that in your own life, right? Do you remember a time where you really wanted something, a new phone, a new car, a new pair of shoes? Okay, and you get it. Let's say you save up, and it comes, and you get it. You open the box. Amazing. How long does it last? I think we've all experienced getting what we want and then realizing within a few days or weeks we don't feel it anymore. That's hedonic adaptation. We've adapted to our new normal. So that can't be the thing that we rely on to make us happy. See, there's a part of your brain that scientists call the system of desire, and it runs on midbrain dopamine circuits, and basically it's a relic from, you know, older parts of our evolution when we were in hunter-gatherer tribes where maybe resources were scarce. And it basically convinces you that you have to compete and get what's yours, right? It's very powerful. It's there in your brain. But we know from modern scientific research that it doesn't make you happy. There's been all kinds of studies where they phone people up at random times of the day and then ask them how they feel. And here's the thing, the consistent but surprising result is that activities our brain sells us as fun, such as eating chocolate, watching television, or just walking around the shops actually leave us feeling less motivated, less confident, and more depressed. I call that part of the brain the wants brain, the part of your brain that makes you keep wanting more and more and more, and it's a big problem, right? So the first thing you have to understand is that those things will not make you happy in the long term. I'm not saying there's necessarily anything wrong with them. Remember what I said about junk happiness before v. core happiness. Nothing wrong with the junk happiness habits

7. 12:12 – 17:20

   Exercise: “Write Your Own Happy Ending” (deathbed reflection + weekly habits)

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:12

      now and again. The mistake is if you're engaging in them too often and/or you believe that they're gonna bring you true contentment in the long term, because they ain't. Okay, so I've got a really practical exercise for you that I want you to do. It's an exercise that's changed my life, and it really speaks to this idea where we confuse success with happiness, and I call it Write Your Own Happy Ending. Okay. I've done this on many occasions. I continue to do it. It's a simple exercise, but I pretty much guarantee if you do it, it will change how you feel, and it will make you happier. Okay, so the exercise is in two parts. The first part requires you to fast-forward into your future. Okay, you ready? I want you to imagine now that you are on your deathbed. This is the last day of this life. You're lying there, and you're reflecting. What are three things you will want to have done in your life? Do you know what they are? Does anything come to mind? You know, I really encourage you to sit with that thought now or later on in a journal, and if you feel able to, I'd love you to share some of your thoughts in the comments below. It's helpful for me to see. It's also helpful for the people in this community where they can also see what other people are saying because the truth is we kind of know what most people are gonna say because palliative care nurses tell us. They sit with people at the end of their life. I spoke to this wonderful palliative care nurse, former palliative care nurse called Bronnie Ware on my podcast a couple of years ago. She wrote the book The Five Regrets of the Dying. And she says most people have the same regrets. "I wish I'd worked less. I wish I'd spent more time with my friends and family. I wish I'd allow myself to be happy. I wish I'd lived my life and not the life that other people expected of me." Right? We kind of know what people are gonna say. I suspect that when you first thought about that question, I would imagine, although I could be wrong, that relationships came to mind. Maybe your children, maybe your partner, maybe your family, right? So you write down what are those three things that you want to have done in your life on your deathbed. For me, I, I'm happy to share with you when I last did it what I put down. I wrote down I want to have spent quality time with my friends and family. Two, I will want to have had time to engage in my own passions, and three, I will want to have done something that leaves a positive impact on the people around me and the wider world. Okay, so that's the first part of the exercise. You write down on your deathbed three things you will want to have done. Now, the second part of the exercise is when you go from the future, and you come right back to now, the present day, your life right now. Okay. And now I want you to write down what I call three happiness habits. What are three things that you could do each week that guarantee that when you get to your final day, you will get the happy ending that you just decided that you want? You've just said what you want. You know what you're gonna want, right? So what are three things you could do each week that make sure you're gonna get that? For me, it makes my three happiness habits, my three weekly ones very easy. I write down I want to have five undistracted meals with my wife and children where I'm not thinking about work or emails or something else, where I'm fully present and enjoying the moment with them. It's just something that works for me. You have to find out what works for you. For me, I've realized over time that that's quite a good number. It's achievable for me, and I know if I'm doing that, I am fostering these connections. I'm nurturing those relationships that are really the most important thing in my life. Okay? So that's the first thing I put down. Second thing I put down is if I have time to play my guitar, write some songs, go for a long walk in nature each week, then I'm finding time for my passions, the things that nourish me. And the third thing for me on my happiness habit list is releasing a weekly podcast. If I put a podcast out into the world every Wednesday, as I have done pretty much every week for the last seven years, then I know I'm doing something each week that I hope is having a positive impact on the world around me. I know it sounds so simple, but it can be that

8. 17:20 – 20:52

   Turning values into action: visible reminders, flexibility, and relationship focus

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:20

      simple. It doesn't mean that my life doesn't get busy at times or there aren't other things to do, but it gives me a sharp focus about what's really important. Okay? So you think about your deathbed, think about now, and I really want you to do that exercise. You can even pause the video right now and do it in a journal or write it in the comments because y- you don't wanna just think about these things and not take action because ideas and inspiration without actual action will not lead to change. Now, it's not about being perfect either. But I have those happiness habits written down in my kitchen. They're pinned with a bit of Blu Tack on the wall, old school. Okay? No technology, no iPad, nothing. Bit of paper, Blu Tack. I've handwritten it, and it means I'm visually being triggered whenever I pass it. These things are important. These things are important. These things are important. Now, look, next week, I'm traveling for work. I'm not gonna be at home. I'm actually going to America to do interviews for my upcoming book, MAKE CHANGE THAT LASTS. So I won't be able to do it next week, but it doesn't mean I have to beat myself up. By having it there, I know when I get back, "Hey, Rangan, make sure you focus on those relationships. You've been away with work. Make sure you come back and put extra time into those relationships," because those relationships are ultimately the most important thing in my life and ultimately bringing it back to happiness, relationships are gonna make you happier. The, the research on that is overwhelming. But put the research to the side for a minute, you already know that. You already know when you spend quality time with people you like and love, that you feel better. Life feels more meaningful, more upbeat. You're more content. And let's say I wasn't traveling, and let's say I had a busy week at work and I only managed to do three meals with my wife and kids. That's okay. I'm like, "Okay, cool. Too short this week. I mustn't let this go on for too long." That's the key, right? Life does get busy sometimes. It is easy to get distracted. But if you make these things a priority, you do the action, you do the exercise that takes you minutes to do, you'll be constantly reminding yourself of what's important. So that's a really practical exercise that I know has helped me, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna help you. Now, let's relate that back to the core happiness stool that I've already told you about; alignment, contentment, and control. To make sure you're taking action after watching this video, I've created a free guide to help you build healthy habits. We can all make short-term change, but can those changes become a fundamental part of our life? Often they don't, and that's why in this free guide, I share with you the six crucial steps you need to take. They're really, really effective. If you wanna get hold of that free guide right now, all you have to do is click the link in the description box below. What does that exercise do? Well, actually, it's one of those exercises that does all three of those legs. But to make it really clear for you... Because, look, I, I've expanded on these ideas a lot in HAPPY MIND HAPPY LIFE, which you can get all over the world, right? But for the purposes of this video, I wanna make things really simple. I want you to be able to take action right now irrespective whether you get this book or not,

9. 20:52 – 22:55

   Connecting the exercise back to the stool: alignment through clarified values

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee20:52

      so that you can start to feel happier. And I would say, for the purpose of this video, think about that exercise as helping you with the alignment leg of the stool. Why? Because you're really asking yourself about your values. What is important to you? You know, at the end of your life on your deathbed, that's when you're really gonna know what's important to you. When you know that's it, it's over now, right? That tells you about what do you really value in life. So think about that exercise as helping you with your alignment. Okay, so let's move to another leg of the stool. Remember what I said at the start. Happiness is a skill. It's a skill that everyone can get better at. You can get better at happiness. Just as if you go to a gym and start l- doing bicep curls and lifting weights, you're gonna get stronger. In the same way, if you work at the components of happiness, you're gonna get happier, right? It's no different. And we're not taught about happiness at school or by our parents, or maybe you were. I wasn't. I fell into the cultural trap of confusing success and happiness, right? I've had many signs of societal success over the past few years, lots of, you know, success in my career, but it didn't make me happy. It really didn't. In some ways, I, I feel I had to get that success to realize, oh, if you've got a hole inside yourself, that hole's still there. It's not gonna come from external achievements. It's gonna come from inner work. And you know that exercise I've shared with you already, how simple is that? Doesn't cost any money. You don't have to buy anything. It's not fancy. But it helps you understand what's important. I believe we can all be happier. I really do, okay? And I wanna share these tools with you. Okay, so let's get onto a different leg of the stool. Let's talk about contentment. Okay?

10. 22:55 – 25:58

    Contentment via “time stands still”: flow state as a happiness pathway

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee22:55

       So what's something you can do? Well, I always think about doing something where time stands still. What do I mean by that? Well, time is really just an external metric. It's a human construct, time, because the way we experience time can be very different depending on what we're doing, right? So one hour where you are in deep conversation with one of your closest friends or your partner, right? It's gonna feel very different from one hour watching the paint dry on a wall. Still one hour, still 60 minutes and however many seconds that is, right? It's gonna feel very different. In fact, if you're watching paint dry for an hour, you're probably gonna be looking at your watch every few minutes wondering, "Oh, when is this gonna end? Man, I can't believe I have to do this." When you're with your best mate chatting, before you know it, the hour's gone. You're like, "Oh my God, is that... Do we, do we not have more time?" Right? So our experience of time is different. So there are activities that you can do where time stands still, and usually time stands still because you've hit something that's called flow state. And we know that people who experience flow state regularly are happier and they're healthier. Right? Now, psychologists tell us that flow has six core components, okay? Number one, complete concentration on the task in hand. Our thoughts and actions become one. Number two, the sense of self decreases. The ego is quietens. Number three, our perception of time changes. Exactly what I've been talking about. Number four, the sense of anxious struggle disappears. Number five, our sense of control increases. Again, control is a different leg of the stool, but you're also feeding that leg with flow state. And number six, the task becomes a pleasurable experience in and of itself. Flow is fun, and the professor who coined the term, who actually died a few years ago, is called Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and his research has shown us that the more often people experience flow state, the greater their sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction. In fact, flow state has been shown to make people up to five hundred percent more productive, six hundred percent more creative, and increase their thinking power so much that it can cut learning times in half. Right? That's incredible. So many benefits to flow state, but let's bring it back to happiness. We're talking about the happiness stool, and I'm saying that if you work on the three components of the stool, you're gonna be happier more often. I want you to think about the activities that you do or you could do where time stands still, and usually they'll be things that are fun, right? Maybe they were things that you used to do as a kid. For me, I mean, there's many

11. 25:58 – 28:00

    Finding your flow: practical examples and the right level of challenge

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee25:58

       that come to mind. The two that I think of straight away are playing my guitar. When I'm playing my guitar and singing or writing a song, I'm just lost in the moment. Okay? I'm just lost. I'm so present with what I'm doing, and it's nourishing me. The other thing I love to do is in my house I've got a little snooker table, um, and I love playing with my son. Sometimes after a busy day, we'll spend 10, 15 minutes just shooting balls together. Other, other times the kids are in bed, and I can for 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 20 minutes, I can just be playing. I find it hypnotic trying to put different spins on the ball, different angles, different bits of backspin or sidespin, seeing how the ball comes off the cushion. That engages me. It doesn't mean it's gonna engage you, but you will have activities in your life where you can access flow and time stands still. Now, a few little tips for you. You generally wanna be doing something that is a little bit challenging, right? If it's really, really easy, you kind of switch off. Your mind can wander. You're not fully aligned, right? You're not in the moment, and if it's too hard, then you also switch off 'cause it just feels unattainable. So you wanna do something that's a little bit harder than your current skill level. That tends to be where we access flow states. But again, if you wanna be happier, you've gotta work on that contentment leg, and finding flow state, doing activities that you really enjoy is one way that you can do that. Now let's move to the other leg, the third leg of the stool, control. Okay. Remember what I said. It's not about controlling the world. The world is fundamentally uncontrollable. It's about what we can do that gives us a sense of control, and that's the key difference. What can you do that gives you a sense of control over your life? There's so many things I could talk about here, and I've gone through so many practical things in my book, Happy Mind Happy Life, which if you're interested, you can take a look at. It's available all over the world. But

12. 28:00 – 32:36

    Control through social connection: talking to strangers and “micro-connections”

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee28:00

       in terms of this video, I wanna share with you something that I think you can apply straight away. I want you to talk to strangers. Now, why do I say that? Okay. We, we kinda know that humans are social animals, right? We know that. That's who we are. That's one of our superpowers as a species, the way we can get together and work together and cooperate, right? But when we think about connections and relationships, we're often talking about our, our deep relationships. You know, earlier on in this video I mentioned family, our partners, our children. Of course, those relationships are very important. But other relationships are important as well with our wider community. There's a network in our brain that scientists say acts as a sociometer. Basically, it's scanning the world around us for threats. Now, the job of the sociometer is to constantly scan our social world. If it detects that you are not securely connected, your self-esteem plummets, and your stress response is triggered. Basically, you become anxious and unhappy and at greater risk of becoming physically and mentally unwell, right? The sociometer is really, really important. So what does that mean for you in your life? Okay. If you're going around town, let's say you, you order yourself a coffee in your favorite coffee shop, and you smile at the barista say, "Hey, thanks. I really... That was a great coffee you made me," and they smile back, go, "Oh, I'm glad you like it." That may seem like something really, really trivial, but it's not. When you go for a walk, if you say good morning to someone or smile at them, say, "Hey, how you doing?" And they say, "Hey, how you doing?" back, these things may not be the deepest of connections where you're sharing your life history with someone, but they're actually very, very important. They're a constant signal to your sociometer in your brain that says, "Hey, the external world around me is safe. I'm not under threat. My life feels in control." Right? That's that third leg of the stool, control. You have to do things that give you a sense of control. Now, we know that people who struggle with happiness, right? People who are, let's say, struggling with depression, one of the things they often do is they stay insular. They stay at home by themselves. They don't wanna go out. They don't wanna mix with people. But ironically, it's the mixing with other people that's gonna actually help them. So I've had many patients over the years like this who I've had to find ways to encourage them to get out. "Okay. You, you're gonna work on your laptop at home. Could you go to your local coffee shop and-" ... work in that coffee shop and maybe just say hi to a couple of people when you're there. You know, whatever it is that I felt would help that particular patient. But the take-home for all of us is that we're all humans, which means we are a social species, which means we need that social connection. And you may recall back in 2020 when many countries around the world were, uh, locking down their citizens, at the start, how many times did we see on social media and in the press people go, "Oh, I'm an introvert. I've been waiting for this moment my entire life"? And then a few weeks later, those same people were saying, "Oh, yeah, I'm an introvert, but I didn't realize how often I, for example, went to my local coffee shop and worked because I'd get a bit of interaction with the world around me." This matters for introverts and extroverts, and there's so much science on this. Professor Nick Epley has done some great studies in the University of Chicago about talking to commuters on trains who you don't know versus not talking to them. In essence, when you talk to strangers on a train on the way to work, you're happier straight afterwards, and you're happier for the rest of the day. Absolutely remarkable. And in his research, he's shown that people beforehand think that it's not gonna make them happier. Our brains are tricking us, saying that we don't wanna be around other people. We do. Again, I'm not talking about deep, meaningful conversations, but those little micro connections are so, so important. Now, I know I mentioned a little bit earlier that arguably control is one of the legs of the core happiness stool that we n- really need to pay attention to, especially today. Now, look, they're all important, and the reason why I came up with this analogy of a stool is that if you only work on one and not the other two, your stool's gonna topple over. It's not gonna be balanced, right? So you want

13. 32:36 – 36:14

    Control in an uncontrollable world: routines, rituals, and a grounded baseline

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee32:36

       all three being worked on. I know I've just mentioned something that's gonna help you with that sense of control, which is finding flow state, doing things where time stands still. I just briefly wanna mention one more thing because we're living in a time where many people are worried about the state of the world, right? The world literally feels out of control for so many people. The economic situation, wars all around the world, conflict, the way people are acting with each other online. You know, it, it's easy to get caught up in that and feel that actually things are going downhill. The world is uncontrollable. That's why giving yourself a sense of control in this uncontrollable world is so, so important. It's not more important than the other two, right, than alignment and contentment, but I really think we need to pay attention to this today because many of us are being dragged into this sense of not having any control because of how we perceive the world around us, and that's why I think routines and rituals are so, so important. If you subscribe to this channel, you will probably have seen me share in the past about morning routines, rituals, routines. I'm very passionate about these ideas. There's many videos on my channel talking about them. But there's something very powerful that a morning routine, for example, does, even a five-minute morning routine. Well, let's say you sit with a cup of coffee and write in your journal, or you do a five or 10-minute workout first thing in the morning. What those little routines do, especially if they're done every day, is that they ground you, and they give you a sense of control. So it doesn't change what's on the news or what's happening around the world, but it changes your perception of the world because you've done something that gives you that sense of control, and that's why I'm so passionate about little five or 10-minute routines each day. I think they're important for your happiness. They're important for your health. And as I've just mentioned, they really help feed that control leg of the stool, which is so, so important. So remember, happiness is a skill that we can all get better at if we know what to work on. You now know what to work on, alignment, contentment, and control. I've shared with you all kinds of exercises that you can consider doing and introducing into your life. Okay, for alignment, I shared that write your own happy ending exercise. I shared that you don't wanna confuse success with happiness and how that exercise will help you with that. Then we spoke about contentment, and I spoke about flow state and doing something where time stands still. I shared it was snooker and guitar for me. What is it gonna be for you? Then I mentioned the importance of having a sense of control. That can be from talking to strangers, smiling, nodding, handshake, a thank you. It can also be with routine and ritual. But the key point I wanna leave you with is that these tips work, right? They really do. It doesn't matter where you are in your life right now, how happy you perceive yourself to be. If you start working on these things, I promise you will get happier. You just need to start. If you found those tips useful, I think you are really going to enjoy this video all about burnout, what causes it, and what you can do about it. One of the worst things in life is when you've got no energy. Every day feels like you're on a treadmill. I've been a medical doctor now for over 21 years, and this is one of the commonest complaints I see.

Episode duration: 36:14