I would have definitely left life, I wouldn’t have killed myself, but I would have found a corner somewhere and shut the door and sat there until they came. Mo goes on to explain that a study at Stanford university shows that people who are happy are in general 12% more happy in whatever they do. So, I started by saying that advertising is probably one of the biggest reasons for unhappiness in our world today. There are points, however, where you can neither prove that something is true or that it is not true.

This conversation with Dr Mark Williamson was recorded at a live Action for Happiness event on the 5th of July 2023. When the time finally comes, you will leave everything behind: the people you love, material wealth, and everything else. Believe it or not, with the exception of two or three, maybe four events at most every year, my rebound time is in seconds. Then you can easily fall into the trap of always wanting more, so this is going to take forever to achieve, so chances are you won’t feel like you achieved it.

My hunch is that your list consisted almost entirely of ordinary moments in life—a smile on your child's face, the smell of warm coffee first thing in the morning, the kinds of things that happen every day. With a beautiful wife and two children he felt he should have everything, but yet he says now he still felt depressed. Photograph: Christopher Lane/The Times/News Syndication View image in fullscreen Mo Gawdat: ‘You don’t have to obey your thoughts.

Mo Gawdat is a remarkable thinker and the Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], an elite team of engineers that comprise Google’s futuristic “dream factory. I have allowed myself to acknowledge how all of the work I’ ve done in technology may have benefited the world up to a point, but the world is now at a point where we actually need to do something different if we want humanity to continue to progress. And another shoutout to the summer velocity crew as well as Pranav and Aatik for helping me strive to understand some of these concepts.Because we mistakenly feel in control, our expectations are overinflated, preventing us from solving the happiness formula. If inflation is raised, taxes increase, your brother moves far away, you can control none of these things. My wife at the time made an insightful comment when they asked to do an autopsy on Ali’s body: “Will it bring Ali back? We’re born without one, but over time, as we learn words, we start to create an identity for ourselves.

Instead of trying to control all the tiny events in our lives, let most of the events in your life seek equilibrium.

One of the most interesting things for me is that top performers, like Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), the CEO of Nike (John Donahoe) and so many more make time to meditate. In reviewing the below, please note that there are details explaining the requirements of each of the 1-10 items in the first two categories, but space prevents these from being presented here. You can be in the station killing yourself with anxiety, regret and shame, but the truth is, the train was never really expected to come on time. As unbelievably difficult as this was, Mo says ‘When you suffer this kind of loss, for many, it’s a defining moment which can lead us to avoid the world and into decay. But that isn’t remotely true once you realise that you don’t have to obey your thoughts – I can accept them, I can reject them, I can ask the brain to go and get me a better one.