Welcome back to Success & Significance, a newsletter by New York Times bestselling author and LEADx CEO Kevin Kruse. Not yet a subscriber?
Just got from Boston a couple of hours ago. Only there two days but what an energizer to walk around in beautiful weather in a beautiful city. Great art, great food, great people. Made me think about a concept I call “happiness multipliers.” Read on…
In the military, there is a concept known as “force multipliers,” which are the variables that can enhance the effectiveness of troops in battle.
For example, a hundred soldiers will fight with the force of a hundred soldiers. But, if they are on defense (typically dug into foxholes, positioned on high ground, closer to supply lines, etc.), the same soldiers might have the effect of 150 soldiers. Similarly, food and rest are multipliers. Morale is a big force multiplier. Intelligence about the enemy is another.
The same concept can be applied to happiness. Research suggests that we all have a certain general “set point” for happiness and depression (i.e., some people are, in general, more or less happy than others). But what if you could identify your own personal happiness multipliers, so you could intentionally trigger them when you start to spiral down?
Here is my own personal list of happiness multipliers:
8+ hours of quality sleep
Spending time in a city (so boring in the suburbs!)
Having no meetings scheduled before noon
A conversation with any of my kids
Date night
Reading Substack newsletters on Sunday morning
Reading books related to Buddhism
Watching the Sixers
Writing
And last but not least, a great cup of coffee certainly multiplies my morning happiness
And just as we have happiness multipliers, we can have happiness “dividers.” These would include the opposite of the multipliers (e.g., less than 8 hours of sleep, a morning packed with meetings and feeling disconnected from my kids). But there are also some unique dividers to my happiness, including:
Hearing people gossip
Complaining and pessimism
Physical pain (would not recommend dental implants!)
I’ve come to believe that the feeling of happiness rarely happens on its own. Being intentional with triggering your personal multipliers and reducing your dividers can have a powerful effect.
QUESTION: What are your personal happiness multipliers and dividers? How others close to you answer this question?
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Until the next issue, remember…
Impact > Income,
Kevin 🙏
PS - My next issue, for subscribers only, is Chapter One from my next book, The Promise and Perils of Goal Setting.