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Do you know what the most popular course at Yale University is? As an esteemed Ivy-league institution perhaps you think it’s: - An MBA? - Philosophy? - How to be a president? It’s none of the above. In it’s 300+ year history, the most popular course at Yale is this: Psychology and the Good Life - by Dr Laurie Santos So at an establishment attracting and nurturing some of the most ambitious people in the world, most are seeking something different from money, power, and status. For me, I think the popularity of courses like this tells us four truths about humans: - We want to be happy and fulfilled - We want our life to have meaning - Many of us are unsure how to achieve either 1. and/or 2. - Even in our AI-soaked lives, we still want to learn from and connect with other humans I find these truths reassuring. How about you? Of course, concepts like ‘happiness’ and ‘meaning’ are both vague and varied in their meaning. What might make you happy, may be a disaster for me. How your team find meaning may differ from how you make work meaningful for yourself. While there isn’t space in a single newsletter to fully unpack these big themes, allow me to offer the following: Happiness - a feeling we want to enjoy as much as possible. For most, probably a mix of contentment and joy. Often a short-lived experience that comes and goes. Fulfilment - a longer-term, more stable experience. A full life is a fulfilled life. Includes experiencing happiness, but not dependent on it. Meaning - we want our lives to matter. For most of us we will feel they matter when we have contributed to the lives of others. Connection - whatever we outsource to AI, let’s be careful we don’t try and replace one of our most fundamental human needs - connecting with others. Happiness, fulfilment, meaning and connection - it’s want we all (really) want. So why do we so often sacrifice these things in our pursuit of money, power, and status? One reason will be economic reality - the vast majority of us have to make a living so we are forced to pursue making money (which often comes with power and status). The second reason is also probably down to many of us believing that happiness, fulfilment, and meaning are to be found the other side of money, power, or status. And so we delay trying to cultivate these things in the mistaken belief that they can only be fully experienced once we have enough money, power, or status in our lives. Worse still, how many of us then allow our need for human connection to drop down our list of priorities? No wonder that despite many of us enjoying more money, power, and status than the vast majority of previous generations across history, we seem to be increasingly sad, unwell, and unfulfilled. Part of the problem is surely down to us seeing ‘success’ as an event, rather than as something we experience. Once we reach a certain level of financial security, no amount of additional money, power, or status can meet our need for happiness, fulfilment, meaning, and connection. So this week, how about you take a moment to think about what you (really) want? Nothing wrong with aiming for a bit more money, power or status. But this could become problematic if you do it at the expense of your happiness and fulfilment. If we can stop seeing success as events you reach - financial milestones, follower count, job title etc… …and instead start seeing our success as what you experience - happiness, fulfilment, meaning and connection… Then we will all have a shot of succeeding, with soul. Go well Ben x PS - before you go, a request. If you find Human Thoughts helpful, why not recommend it to people in your network? My target for this year is to take this from reaching hundreds to reaching thousands. Want to help me do this? All people need to sign up is this link - www.humantalk.co.uk/newsletter Thank you x
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