The Happiness Game

ASPIRE to Build a Life You Love

to

Maximize Life Satisfaction

• Affluential well-being: Financial Stability, Security, and Freedom
  • Frugal lifestyle:
    • Over time, as your contentment increases, you'll naturally have fewer wants, which means you'll spend less money.
  • Starter emergency fund:
    • Begin saving up $1,000.
    • Use it only for emergencies, and replenish ASAP.
    • Learn more: Dave Ramsey's baby step #1
  • Pay off debts:
    • Attack the smallest debt first to generate momentum.
    • Learn more: Dave Ramsey's baby step #2
• Spiritual well-being:
  • Leading a meaningful and purposeful life while mindfully savoring the present.
    • Leverage personal strengths.
    • Setting self-concordant goals.
      • Affection: wanting the goal.
      • Authenticity: goal fits who you truly are.
      • Autonomy: feeling free to choose it.
    • Lasting fulfillment comes from the pursuit of meaningful goals, not their attainment.
    • Job crafting:
      • Redesign your current role to better fit your strengths, interests, and motivations.
      • Adjust tasks, relationships, or your mindset about the work.
      • Map how you spend your time now, then reallocate effort toward energizing work.
      • Leads to higher engagement, satisfaction, and performance.
      • Coordinate changes with supervisors to stay aligned with team goals.
  • Meditation practice: Non-judgmental present moment awareness.
• Physical well-being:
  • Eat:
    • Nutritious, whole foods.
    • Stop when 80% full.
  • Move:
    • "Sitting is the new smoking"
    • 10,000 steps per day
    • HIIT (High-intensity interval training), which also increases mental toughness and boosts metabolism longer after workouts.
    • 30-min exercise 3x week. Not exercising is like taking a depressant.
  • Sleep:
    • 7-9 hours
    • Consistent sleep and wake times
    • Nap
    • Avoid blue light at least an hour before bed
    • Avoid eating a few hours before bed
  • Touch:
    • We need hugs! We're wired for touch. It lowers cortisol and boosts oxytocin. Virginia Satir, one of the most important psychologists of our time, said, "We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth."
• Intellectual well-being:
  • Curiosity
  • Openness to new experiences
  • Deep learning
• Relational well-being: Connection and Kindness
  • "The number one predictor of happiness is not money or prestige, not success or accolades, rather it is the time we spend with people we care about and who care about us." — Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD
  • "The foundation of healthy relationships with others is a healthy relationship with oneself." — Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD
    • Do you remember how you're the best version of yourself right now because you ALWAYS do what makes sense next? Well, it's the same for everyone else, too! When both people in the relationship realize this, we start our perspectives with friendly curiosity rather than fighting.
• Emotional well-being:
  • Part one of The Happiness Game is primarily focused here.
  • Permission to be human (experiencing unpleasant emotions) is the foundation of a full and fulfilling life.
  • Cultivate pleasurable emotions, like gratitude, joy, serenity, inspiration, etc.