When someone says, “You are wrong,” respond with “Tell me more.”

I wanted more. So I changed careers. At the age of fifty-five, I quit my chief executive job, with a plan to write, speak, and teach about the science of happiness. I started by creating a simple personal mission statement for myself.

you can’t choose your feelings, but you can choose your reaction to your feelings.

The macronutrients of happiness are enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.

happier is not a state of being, but a state of doing—not a thing you wait around and hope for, but an achievable change you actively work toward.

Happiness is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose. To get happier is to get more of these elements, in a balanced way—not all of one and none of another. But if you were reading closely, you noticed one funny thing about all three: they all have some unhappiness within them. Enjoyment takes work and forgoing pleasures; satisfaction

The second macronutrient of happiness is satisfaction. It’s that thrill from accomplishing a goal you worked for. It’s that feeling you have when you get an A in school or a promotion at work; when you finally buy a house or get married. It’s how you feel when you do something difficult—maybe even painful—that meets your life’s purpose as you see

The first is enjoyment. This might sound like pleasure—“feeling good.” However, this isn’t correct. Pleasure is animal; enjoyment is completely human. Pleasure emanates from parts of the brain dedicated to rewarding us for certain activities, like eating and sex, that in earlier times would help keep us alive and passing on our genes. (Today the

the best life is to accept your unhappiness (so you can learn and grow) and manage the feelings that result.