The Easy Happiness Formula

As the author of several bestselling books about happiness, I’ve done a lot of reading and research into easy ways to feel better. Many of these books have valuable information, but I have never read a book (including ones I’ve written) that dealt with what might be the biggest factor in how happy you feel. In my opinion, one specific powerful idea has eluded happiness researchers and authors — until now. In a phrase, that secret idea is the impact one’s expectations have on how happy you are with each event in your life. Having minimal expectations is perhaps the easiest and most profound way to immediately boost your happiness level.

What are expectations? They are your brain’s way of predicting and preparing for life’s events. As you read this article, you expect to learn something valuable. If I thwart those expectations by writing extensively about different types of cardboard, you would probably be dissatisfied. In such a case, your expectations would not be met, and you would likely not be a happy camper.

On the other hand, if upon reading this article you felt like you learned something truly life-transforming, you would probably be quite happy. After all, your initial expectations were likely not very high, and this article would have greatly surpassed your minimal expectations.