Money can actually buy happiness

but only about 10% of it.

If you tell me how much money you make

I can tell you how happy you are gonna be in your life

but only by 10%

because the other 90% of happiness

is related to how you process the world around you

and your genetic makeup,

which means that 90% is up to you.

[upbeat music]

Hi, I am Amy Blankson,

I'm the founder and CEO of Fearless Positivity,

I research the intersection of happiness,

technology and wellbeing.

And today I'm here to debunk some myths

that we've all heard and believe about happiness.

You either have happiness or you don't.

It turns out that some people

are actually born happier than other people.

Some people are born predisposed

to be more satisfied than other people.

And some people have a harder time

finding that level of satisfaction.

Researchers found that only 10% of your happiness

is due to your environment,

the other 90% is due to your genes

and your perception of the world.

The key here is that

it doesn't have to be the end of the story,

despite your genes, we all have the capacity

to increase our happiness levels

and to practice happiness overall.

Happiness looks the same around the world.

Happiness takes on a different sense of meaning

in context of the cultures around the world.

If you're a scientist

and you're trying to study and measure happiness,

we actually look at something called subjective wellbeing

which is the metric being used

to measure happiness on a global scale,

through the UN global happiness report.

The UN global happiness report comes out every year

reporting on the happiest countries in the world.

And every year consistently

the Scandinavian countries top the list.

The question is,

why do these countries

consistently show up as happier than others?

What makes them happier countries?

If you're familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs,

you know that shelter and food

are the bedrock of being able

to reach a level of self actualization in your life.

So, having those taken care of

and provided by those countries

enables individuals to pursue other passions

that help them to move up the triangle for happiness,

but other countries that maybe are not as wealthy

also top the list.

What's interesting is that

a number of countries who have high levels of social support

have been indicated to be some of the happier countries.

So if we're looking for a culture

that is going to embrace

and to create a global level of happiness,

the fastest way to get there

is by providing social support to those around you.

There's power in positive thinking.

Happiness is actually something that you can get better at,

We've learned from scientists over the past two decades

from the field of positive psychology

that our mind has incredible power to change our scenarioses

and our life situations,

and we can begin to train our brains

to think this way by doing a series of exercises

that I call the J-GAME.

It's a cheesy pneumonic that I used to remember,

journaling, gratitude, acts of kindness,

meditation, and exercise,

the J-GAME.

When I talk about journaling,

we're talking about taking two minutes

to write down the most meaningful moment

in the last 24 hours of your life.

What were you doing?

Who were you with?

And why was it so meaningful?

In doing so your brain begins to relive

the most meaningful moment of the last 24 hours

helping you to actually re-experience that

because your brain can't tell the difference

between visualization and actual experience,

and as a result we find that

your brain begins to relive this moment

and feel a double sense of happiness.

The second habit is G,

G for gratitude.

What we're trying to do with gratitude

is to retrain the neural pathways in your brain

to begin to develop a new reflex

in how you're seeing and thinking about the world.

We can't be both positive and negative at the same time.

So when your brain is practicing

scanning your environment for positive things

your brain can't literally look

for all the negative things at the same moment,

you're beginning to all of a sudden

find new ways to scan your environment for the good

and over time this becomes a reflexive habit

that changes your outlook on life.

The third habit is A for acts of kindness.

I recommend you take two minutes a day

to thank or praise somebody in your social support network,

you can do so by text, by phones, in person

or even in handwritten letter.

But what happens when you send a quick message to somebody

saying thank you for something that you've done,

all of a sudden you create a positive feedback loop

that not only makes the other person feel happier

but it also makes you feel happier,

and so you begin to create a virtuous cycle.

M for meditation.

I recommend you take two minutes a day

to simply watch your breath go in

[inhales deeply] and out.

When you meditate other people around you

pick up the benefits of your meditation

even if they don't know you're meditating.

This comes back to something called the mirror neuron effect

and then mirror neuron effect

is an incredibly powerful response

based on the fact that humans

are wirelessly connected to one another.

The last habit is exercise.

Exercise is a bit of a starter drug.

I recommend that individuals pick one of these five habits

to try for 21 days in your life.

This is up to you and you can get better at happiness

if you make happiness into a work ethic.

Success leads to happiness.

Researchers have since found

that the exact opposite is true.

Happiness leads to success.

We keep thinking,

I'll be happy when,

I'll be happy when I get good grades,

or I'll be happy when I get into college,

and then you get into college

and suddenly you need to get a job,

and then you need to get a promotion

and then you need to buy a house,

and each time happiness

gets pushed over the cognitive horizon

and your brain never actually

gets to that feeling of happiness.

The reason why is because we're after

perhaps the wrong things.

When we look after success

as something that leads to greater happiness,

we're constantly looking for external validation

for our overall happiness,

but if we can positively identify the correct things

that actually drive meaning and satisfaction

on a deeper level

then we're actually moving towards being the person

that we want to be.

Those are the things that create

long-term satisfaction and happiness.

Money can't buy happiness.

Money can actually buy happiness,

but only about 10% of it.

If you tell me how much money you make

I can tell you how happy you are gonna be in your life,

but only by 10%,

because the other 90% of happiness

is related to how you process the world around you

and your genetic makeup,

which means that 90% is up to you.

So no matter how many houses you buy,

how many planes you own,

it won't necessarily impact your happiness,

and in fact, it might have a decreasing effect.

Research finds the individuals who are more wealthy

actually reach a point

at which their happiness begins to decline

with increasing money.

We find that there's the law

of diminishing returns in economics that says that

there is a benefit to things like money

for a certain amount of time

and then after a certain point there's a steep drop off.

Social media makes us unhappy,

many individuals feel as though social media

is making us less happy overall

by creating levels of social comparison,

creating an increasing cyber bullying

and leading to a lot of insecurities about privacy,

but social media is not to blame,

it's about how we use it.

Challenges of social media

is a level of social comparison,

always looking to other individuals

in your immediate environment

who perhaps are living a better life

or their lives seemingly are perfect,

but when we look at our own lives

we start to wonder

maybe I should be doing something different

and you feel less satisfied.

The fastest way to make someone less happy

is to compare them to someone else.

We often say that comparison is the thief of joy.

So looking at social media,

the key is to be able to limit the amount of time

and exposure to social media

that actually benefits you,

that helps you feel connected,

and the moment at which you begin

to find yourself comparing to somebody else

to step away and maybe even if you need to

take a digital detox.

Thanks so much for tuning in today.

My goal is to leave you feeling empowered

and to know that you can make a difference

in your happiness levels,

that it is within reach

and that you can become a best version of yourself

by striving after your potential.

Good luck.