“ IT IS EASIER TO ACT OUR WAY INTO A NEW WAY OF THINKING THAN TO THINK OURSELVES INTO A NEW WAY OF ACTING .”
Power SESSION
NEIL PASRICHA Intentional Living & Building Trust
Great Work ➞ Big Success ➞ Be Happy Does that equation look right ? Neil Pasricha finds most of us have grown up with that lesson instilled in us : If you do great work and achieve big success , it leads to happiness .
“ This model is fundamentally reversed ,” he claimed to the ISPA Conference audience . “ It turns out , to be our best selves we need to put happiness at the beginning of the equation .”
Be Happy ➞ Great Work ➞ Big Success
“ Happy people live longer . The average lifespan in this country right now is 30,000 days . We know from research that if you cultivate happiness , you get 3,000 extra days .” For Neil , the pursuit of happiness all started with a “ rock bottom ” period of his life . Within a three-day period , his wife told him she did not want to be married any longer , and his best friend took his own life . To cope , Neil began trying to focus on one good thought every day , eventually recording his ideas on a blog called 1,000 Awesome Things .
Over the past decade since he began to catalog “ awesome things ,” Neil has researched happiness .“ We ’ re awake 1,000 minutes per day ,” he said . Happiness can start by committing to use two of those minutes to selffocus . He suggests doing just one of the following routines every day : TWO-MINUTE MORNINGS : When first awaking for the day , take two minutes to answer a few mindfulness questions to refocus yourself : l I will let go of … l I am grateful for … l I will focus on … TWO-MINUTE MIDDAYS : Experience nature . Sometimes called “ forest bathing ,” the act of surrounding yourself by nature allows you to absorb phytoncides — a chemical released by trees that is incredible for our immunity . ( Our levels of being in nature are lower than ever before in history .) Visit a local park , or sit at the office picnic table
under a tree . After work or on days off , find a place where you can escape to a natural place . TWO-MINUTE EVENINGS : Embrace the simple by reading two pages of fiction — from a real book . An hour before
going to bed , turn off the cellphone and in the final minutes before turning off the lights for the night , take two minutes to escape to another world through a book . n
“ IT IS EASIER TO ACT OUR WAY INTO A NEW WAY OF THINKING THAN TO THINK OURSELVES INTO A NEW WAY OF ACTING .”
— NEIL PASRICHA
EDITOR ’ S NOTE : Scot T . Gillies , executive editor at ISPA , sat in on Neil Pasricha ’ s presentation and chose the above highlight to share .
18 PULSE n JULY 2023