WHY WE FAIL TO BOOST OUR HAPPINESS: WE DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START

It was my last year in college and I needed to take either physics or chemistry to graduate. Both classes required a high-school science course as a prerequisite.

I was super nervous because in high-school I had opted not to take these courses.

It was with much trepidation that I signed up for Physics. After only 1 week I was completely lost.

Across the semester, I read the text book, went to office hours and attended a study group. Still, I just barely passed the class.

I was just utterly unprepared to absorb what I was learning. Without learning those foundational physics skills in high-school, it was near impossible to do well in the course.

My crappy physics grade probably doesn't surprise you.

I started the class, not knowing the basics and already way behind the other students.

This is why advanced courses require that you take prerequisites, learn foundational skills, or test your knowledge before you can enroll.

If you don’t know the basics, you’ll have difficulty absorbing the information that you’re taught.

And I was being taught skills way above my skill level.

Now let me ask you this.

Have you ever been asked to take prerequisites, learn foundational skills, or test your knowledge before you start a happiness product or service?

Most people say no.

If you’ve tried and failed to increase your happiness before, it’s not your fault.

You were probably being taught skills outside your skill level.

If this was the case, you were doomed from the start, just like I was in physics.

And this happens all the time.

A lot of happiness products jump right into teaching you really challenging happiness skills. This would be like me trying to teach you calculus before you learn addition.

If I did that, you would fail. And your failure would be my fault because expecting you to learn complex happiness skills before you learn the basics is just dumb.

This is why in my happiness programs, we always start from the beginning.

My peeps start by developing key foundational happiness skills. They start off on the right foot and can be more successful as a result.

What about you? Do you know where to start?

Then check out our FREE guide: 5 Steps to make Positivity, Resilience, and Mindfulness automatic.
​Related Articles:

What is happiness?

In this activity, you clarify what happiness means to you.

pRIORITIZING Positivity

In this activity, you learn to prioritize positive activities.

HappinesS Beliefs

In this activity, you work on your growth mindset to generate healthy beliefs about happiness.