Solve for Happy (Mo Gawdat)

Can there really be an equation for happiness?

Mo Gawdat is an instructor of mine at ThePowerMBA — he has an instantly likeable demeanor and in that one hour session that I attended, I got the feeling that the man is at absolute peace with himself. He is blessed with this amazing voice that epitomizes peace and it acts as this perfect medium to deliver the contents of a book on happiness. Largely triggered by a tragic life event he endured, this book is a timely reminder that one should not wait to go through that level of grief and sadness before beginning their quest for happiness.

My top-3 learnings from this book:

1. The equation. Happiness (equals) Events of life (minus) Our expectations out of those events. ‘nuff said!
2. Vantage point. Imagine your spouse takes your very expensive car that you have longed for ever since you were a child for a spin but gets into a head-on collision with a truck. Will you be happy that the airbags were deployed on time to save your spouse or will you be sad that you lost your car that you worked so hard to get? Every event will contain something that meets our expectation to make the happiness equation work for us — provided we look at it from the right vantage point.
3. Nothing is under our control. Or is there? Yes, Action and Attitude are the controllable. Let’s start with Action. Take the responsible action first and then release the need to control. Mo calls this “committed acceptance” — it’s not our expectations of an event that drives success but our actions that do. So focus on performing your actions to perfection. Moving on to attitude. Try not to make a big deal of every unexpected event — just treat it as a missed exit on a highway — you are going to get to your destination eventually unless you get out of the car before and throw the keys out. So just keep driving!

It is all going to be fine in the end. If it is not yet fine, then it is not yet the end.

So, there is an equation for happiness. This may not be THE equation — but AN equation. Each of us need to find our equations — but until we do this one comes in handy. Nevertheless, solving this equation takes practice and it is not one of those equations that you can afford to skip and still manage to pass the exam!