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  • What is happiness?

  • [Laughs]

  • Umm...

  • I think happiness is a pretty complicated concept

  • that has to do with pleasure on one hand

  • but has to do with broader meaning, also.

  • We know that there is a whole spectrum

  • of positive state that one wants to attain

  • that is much more nuanced

  • than the word 'happiness' would imply.

  • It seems to me that happiness is some blend

  • of experience of pleasure and the experience

  • of meaning and fulfillment in life.

  • And, I think much more of the latter than the former.

  • For me, staying in my own lane,

  • not being comparative to others, my peers

  • that could have more than me or less than me.

  • That is when I'm the most happy,

  • when I'm in my own lane.

  • Happiness is something more long term.

  • I could sensibly ask you if you're happy with

  • your day or happy with your life.

  • Pleasure is short term.

  • Pleasure is an experience that could last

  • 10 seconds, 20 seconds, a minute.

  • A sip of wine, it could be hearing a joke,

  • being hugged, watching your child laugh.

  • If you want to define happiness in any big picture way

  • you really want to be focusing more on

  • what gives life meaning and purpose

  • than you do on the moment to moment

  • little jolts of joy you might get.

  • Happiness to me before I was diagnosed with cancer

  • a few years ago

  • meant something very different to me.

  • Happiness back then was about achieving these big milestones:

  • graduating from college, getting the right kind of job.

  • Now, happiness to me is about the mundane

  • everyday, little things in my life.

  • We know a lot about the things that are associated

  • with high life satisfaction.

  • By far the most important is your relationships with other people.

  • There's kind of fleeting happiness,

  • the kinds of little buzzes you get from

  • eating an awesome ice cream sundae.

  • But, to me the real happiness,

  • what I would call joy,

  • is that deep connection you get with somebody else.

  • My son racing up to me and throwing his arms around

  • my neck and his legs around my middle

  • and he's the koala bear and I'm the tree:

  • that's happiness.

  • That's happiness.

What is happiness?

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