The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha“This instinctive need for what we don’t yet have creates in us a persistent state of dissatisfaction. Without it, our ancestors would always be only one failed hunting session away from starvation…unhappiness is nature’s way of keeping people on their toes. It’s a crude system, but it has worked for thousands of years.”

“Studies show that when we begin to value the rewards we get for doing a task, we lose our inherent interest in doing the task.”

“Self-success is in your head. It’s invisible! Only you know if you have it. Self-success means you achieved what you wanted to achieve. For yourself. You’re genuinely proud of your accomplishment, you’re happy with your work, and, most important, you’re satisfied. You want nothing. You feel contentment.”

“Morihei Ueshiba, founder of the Japanese martial art aikido, said, ‘As soon as you concern yourself with the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you.'”

“No matter what happens right now, Triumph or Disaster, it’s an impostor. You should treat them the same. Winning or losing is the same. Place the game in the context of your entire life. The world will go on.”

“When you’re through changing, learning, working to stay involved — only then are you through.”

“Be you. Be you and be cool with it. Love your tics and nicks and loves and scratches and fears and passions. Knowing them leads to living them, and living them leads to loving them.”

“Bronnie Ware is an Australian palliative nurse who spent years taking care of the dying in the last three months of their lives. “When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently,” she says, “common themes surfaced again and again:”

– I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me

– I wish I hadn’t worked so hard

– I wish I had the courage to express my feelings

– I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends

– I wish that I had let myself be happier