Happiness

Meaning

Be Happier by Committing to Something

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, August 9 2023

One of the most interesting ideas in positive psychology over the last couple of decades is the idea of “manufactured happiness”—that is, the idea that your brain makes yourself happier as a result of certain behaviors. Daniel Gilbert, who has done a lot of research on happiness and choice, conducted one study on this topic that assessed an...

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Happiness

It Will Always Be Something

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 19 2023

There’s a saying, “It’s always in the last place you look.” I believe it was Jerry Seinfeld who quickly retorted something along the lines of, “Of course it is; if you kept looking in more places after you found what you were looking for, you’d be a crazy person.” Obviously, the joke is in the double-meaning of “last place you look”—meaning both...

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Happiness

Chasing Fulfillment

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 5 2023

If you ask someone what they are chasing in life, they usually answer one of two things: Now, we all know the happiness paradox: if you chase happiness, you’ll never get it. The reason why people say that is that if you cannot choose to be happy now with what you do have such as your health or family, then nothing can fill that void. It’s why...

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Happiness

Someone Else Is to Blame. So What?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, March 15 2023

Blaming others is the fastest, easiest way to avoid responsibility. We all know what it is like for someone to wrong us and for that person to be the reason why we are having a problem. And, if possible, we can try to respond, retaliate, or hold the person accountable. But, there's another side to this, which is what you do afterwards and whether...

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Happiness

Desire and Anticipation Heighten Life Experience

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, February 8 2023

One of my favorite memories studying psychology is when I was told about an experiment where the experimenters told people to imagine they had won something (e.g., tickets to a concert, a kiss from their favorite celebrity) and then asked them when they would like to receive it. It's such a fascinating thought experiment because everyone thinks...

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Growth

Happiness without Growth Is Like Getting an A without Learning

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 28 2022

One of the more (in)famous analogies from The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life's purpose is the relationship between happiness and growth being like the relationship between grades and learning. The reason for the analogy is that a large portion of the population is married to the idea that happiness is the meaning of life and so no...

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Happiness

How You Can Choose to Be Happy

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 26 2022

“Happiness is a choice.” If you’ve ever listened to a self-help guru or optimistic person, you’ll have heard this statement. Many respond with, “Easy for you to say…you have ______. If I had that, I’d be happy, too,” or its opposite, “But you don’t have _______. If you had that, you wouldn’t be happy, either.” To many, happiness seems to be a matte...

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Success

The Positive Outcome

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 27 2022

There is one unifying goal in all of life: the positive outcome.  Everyone is looking for that one meaning in life that makes them feel fulfilled: service to others, love, happiness, pleasure, achievement, learning, personal growth, financial success, respect, or appreciation.  The truth is that it is all growth-related, as everyone looks forward t...

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Emotions

If You Want to Be Happy, Then You Have to Be Happy

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 29 2022

Yes, I know the title is a little too cute and seemingly paradoxical.  But the truth is that happiness is a choice as much as it is a response to external stimuli.  Give me a moment to explain how emotions work in humans vs. earlier organisms, and you’ll understand why the title is not a paradox nor a tautology but rather an explanation of—and a pr...

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The Meaning of Life

Happiness is NOT the Meaning of Life

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 6 2022

Being the most controversial assertion in The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life’s purpose, this blog post is probably long overdue.  There is a long-standing belief that the meaning of life is to be happy, and much of positive psychology is focused on maximizing happiness as a result.

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