Happiness by Design: Paul Dolan

This conversation is about recognising that the stories and narratives we tell ourselves about what should make us happy – high status, millions of social media followers, billions in the bank – are often inaccurate. Instead – we need to start paying attention to what does make us happy – for example, spending time with friends, connection, pro-social acts of kindness and altruism, playing sport, listening to music … the list goes on.

Paul Dolan is a behavioural scientist and author of the bestselling book Happiness By Design and Happy Ever After. His motto? "Do things that bring you pleasure or purpose. If they don't - stop doing them."

So, in this episode we discuss:

• Letting go of stories and paying attention to our experiences
• How willpower is weak but design power is strong – what that means and how you can harness it in your own life
• Why you need to put your phone away and stop recording at gigs and festivals (it interrupts your 'flow of experience')
• Reaching narratives - and how the belief that X in the future will make us happy is an illusion
• Why pro-social acts need to be celebrated
• Why we should spend time designing our lives to increase the amount of time spent doing things that provide pleasure or purpose
• The power of environment and how to harness it
• The importance of acceptance and recognising we are all fallible human beings
• And much more!

**Warning** this episode contains swearing and adult themes

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