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Arthur Brooks is the poster child for an interesting and accomplished life. He has made it a practice to upend his career every decade. He played the French horn for the Barcelona orchestra, is friends with the Dalai Lama, and is the author of 14 books (including one coauthored with Oprah Winfrey). Hes also a happiness evangelist and a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, where he teaches a popular course on leadership and happiness. In addition, he’s a columnist for The Atlantic, where he writes weekly about the tools for building a happier life. Yet even he struggles with his own happiness, which is why he studies it. Now hes gathered his most popular essays into a new book, The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life (Harvard Business Review Press), which goes on sale August 12. Arthur Brooks [Photo: Jenny Sherman] I connected with Brooks on August 4 for an in-depth conversation, in which youll learn: Why worrying about whether you feel happy is the wrong way to assess whether you are happy How you can stop doing the things you hate Why ambition often works as a counterpoint to happiness The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. I know youve been asked this question a million times, but lets establish a baseline definition. What is happiness? I start by defining happiness by what it’s not, which is a feeling. People often say that I can’t define happiness, but I know when I feel it, or it’s how I feel when I’m with the people that I love. That definition is the reason most people aren’t as happy as they want to be. They have the wrong definition of happiness. Feelings and emotions exist to give us signals about what’s going on around us. Happiness is something that you actually can study and become more skillful at. Its similar to nutrition, where you have to get past the smell of the food, which is the feelings of happiness, and getting more toward the macronutrients, which are its component parts. The macronutrients of happiness are enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. To be happy, you need to understand what they are and change your habits to get more of them. If happiness isnt a feeling, how do you know youre on the right track for achieving a happy life? To begin with, this requires that you pay attention to something other than your feelings. Think about: How much are you enjoying your life? How much do you feel that your life does have meaning? How much satisfaction are you taking in your accomplishments? Aristotle talked about eudaimonia, which is the good life, well lived, notwithstanding your feelings. It should come to the point where you’re so good at understanding and practicing happiness that you can say, I had a terrible, terrible day today, and I’m an incredibly happy person. In The Happiness Files you write that we should stop doing things we hate. How do you balance that with understanding that some of what you hate doing is an investment into living a happy life? Thats right. There are things that you do because they are necessary, but you dont like them. For example, no one wants to wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning to be with their crying child. That’s something that’s not enjoyable, but it is meaningful. Thats why the three component parts of happiness are so important. If the things that you hate are not enjoyable, they’re not satisfying, and they’re not meaningful, those are the things that you should eliminate if you can. You can’t eliminate all of them, because life is life. But the best life is one that doesn’t just look for more enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. It’s one where you move away from the parts of your life that aren’t any of those things, but you were doing them just because you thought you were supposed to. In many of your essays, you point out that some of our suffering is because we are trapped in systems that are preying upon our anxiety and fears. What do you tell people who are in these systems but can’t necessarily get out for one reason or another? It depends on the system that we’re talking about. If we’re talking about a technological system where there’s an overuse of devices and social media, I treat it much the same way that I do with addictive substances and behaviors. Its the same set of protocols for detoxing from the dopaminergic pathways where your learning system has been hijacked. You have to put together a series of habits in your life that will replace the things that you’re trying to avoid. There are lots and lots of ways to do this, but you have to recognize that these systems work the same way as any other addictive system. What if these systems are built into our career progression? For example, you mentioned the news is an entire industry that preys upon people’s anxiety to keep them scrolling. However, for many people, its important to stay informed about what’s going on. To stay informed is very, very different than constantly updating your information. News can be quite addictive, but only when it’s feeding fear, alarm, or anger. Those are amygdala-based responses, and the news media has gotten very good at feeding that and then using technology so you can maximize time in the app. That’s actually predatory and unethical, but I can’t prohibit it, because I believe in a free society. The truth is nobody should be consuming more than half an hour a day of news. You’re not going to stop reading news, but you have to set up protocols around it. For example, I read the news once in the morning, and I don’t update. I’m not going to learn anything. I’m just distracting myself, and the best thing to do with these distracting technologies is set up rules. No more than half of your news reading should be politics. If you read more than 10 or 15 minutes a day of politics, youre hurting yourself. Even if you work in politics? [Laughs] You shouldnt work in politics. Thats another way to hurt yourself. But someone has to do it! I know. I mean it would be great if representing citizens was more of a positive thing to do. Local politics, which isn’t so contentious, is more about that, but theres this political entertainment establishment that’s really troubling at the national level. I think we can see this playing out across many different industries beides politics, where the top level is really competitive and can be part of a sick system that exploits you. But what about people who do want to be in the top echelons? Is it possible to be happy at the top? It’s hard. I wrestled with this my whole career. The truth is that people at the top like CEOs are rarely very happy people. Part of the reason is because their dreams came true, and it turned out they had the wrong dreams. Look, I’m glad that we have good leaders, and I know some who do really well in spite of it. But nobody does really well in their happiness because of worldly success. They do really well in life along with their worldly success. The truth is people who have big dreams to help other people, to run organizations, to be a great leader, they need to be very, very careful of other impulses and very careful of other goals. And their goals should not include money, power, pleasure, and fame. If they do, they’re going to wind up incredibly unhappy people. Youve had an incredible career. How have you implemented these guardrails in your own life? Poorly at times, and it’s one of the reasons that I studied this material because happiness has not come naturally to me. It’s not that I’m miserable, it’s that it’s been hard, and I’ve chased the lure of worldly success an awful lot, and I’ve had to understand what really matters to me along the way. One of the reasons I dedicate my life to the love and happiness of others is because I want to understand these things. I want to teach these things. I want to bring more of these ideas to the world. The result of it is that now when things go wrong, it doesn’t crush me, and when things go right, it doesn’t throw me so much. Now I’m able to focus more on what I really care about, which is to lift people up and bring them together in bonds of happiness and love, using science and ideas. And I focus on that. And that’s the kind of success that I actually want, transcending myself and bringing a better life to other people. Then some days, I wake up and I’m like Darn it. Nobody read my article in The Atlantic today. And then my wife will say, Go read your research. What has surprised you the most in your research about happiness? The shocking truth is that we’re not built for happiness. Mother Nature doesn’t care if we’re happy. Mother Nature wants us to survive and pass on our genes and get calories. She also wires us with all of these impulses to make more money and acquire more stuff and use people and worship ourselves. It makes us miserable. I thought that like food, or craving protein after I work out, if I really have a natural craving for something, it’s probably based on something really healthy. And it’s not necessarily true when it comes to happiness. It turns out Mother Nature lies to me, and I have to be at war with my impulses to become a happier person. Philosophers have always said that there’s an animal component to the human prefrontal cortex and a transcendent component to our consciousness. The animal component is your physical impulses, and the divine component is your moral aspirations, and going from one to the other, that’s the life in life. That’s the magic of it all What are the biggest unanswered questions about happiness? Oh, there are so many. For one, why is it that happiness is so much harder for some people than it is for others? For example, my wife is just naturally so much happier than I am. Why? Is it just brain chemistry? Is there something supernatural about it? Is it a different way of living? I don’t know. I wish I knew. But if I can put the information that people have about their own selves in their hands, then at the very least they can have strategies for becoming happier.
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I’m a big fan of productivity bursts. Like choosing a task that will take 10 or 12 hoursa task you’ve long been putting off specifically because it will take 10 or 12 hoursand knocking it out in a single day. (Here are the eight steps to an incredibly productive day.) I’m also a big fan of using shorter bursts within a day. Generally speaking, a person can focus on any given task for only 90 to 120 minutes. After that, typically you need a 15- to 20-minute break to recharge and achieve high performance on your next task. (The Pomodoro Technique uses even shorter bursts: 25 minutes of work, five-minute break.) In so many words, productivity sprints are great. But they do not a work life make. Over the course of a month, much less a year, how much you get done on a consistent basis matters a lot more than what you can pull off for short bursts. For example, Stephen King, the best-selling author of nearly 70 books, doesn’t write a book in three or four hard-core weeks. For decades, he wrote for five or six hours a day, shooting for 2,000 words a day. These days, he works for four hours with a goal of 1,000 words. (That pace is still more than most authors manage, and King is 77 years old.) For Kingand for youendurance matters more than speed. More to the point, durability matters more than speed. Top Speed Versus Sustained Pace Imagine you’re a factory worker. You start the day full blast, producing 80 widgets the first hour. No other worker can match your speed; you’re the Usain Bolt of piecework. But then you start to fade. You manage 75 widgets the next hour, 70 the next. By midafternoon you’re down to 50. Over an eight-hour shift, you manage 505 widgets. The person next to you never managed to make more than 70 widgets in an hour, but because she kept that pace for her entire shift, she made 560 widgets. Sound a little too tortoise versus hare? Not really. As writer Brady Holmer notes in a recent Substack post, durability is not about how fast you can go when you’re fresh. Durability is about how little you slow down when fatigued. Bolt may have been fasterat an absolute speedthan everyone else, but he also could have slowed down the least. That’s especially true as race distances get longer. The 400-meter hurdle world record holder, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, may not be faster at top speed than everyone else. But she clearly slows down less over the course of a race. Why does that matter to you? Because your workday isn’t a sprint. Your work year isn’t a sprint. Workyour efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, outputis an endurance race. One where your ability to maintain a steady, consistent pace makes an exponentially greater difference than your ability (valuable though it may be) to occasionally crank out a chunk of work. The Big Three of Sustainable Output Let’s extend the running analogy a bit more. Most runners focus on the primary factors of endurance performance: running economy, lactate threshold, and VO max. Running economy is just what it sounds like: how efficiently your body uses energy to maintain a given pace. Biomechanics, coordination, strength, flexibility, and other factors all play a role. In work terms, less wasted effort, less unnecessary repetition, working smarter, not harder. (Although I’m a fan of working smarter as well as harder.) Lactate threshold is the highest intensity or pace at which your body can clear lactate from your blood as quickly as it’s produced. Go past your threshold and lactate builds up, fatigue kicks in, and performance drops. VO max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise. The higher your VO max, the more oxygen your muscles get, which in exercise terms means you can run, bike, swim, etc. faster and longer. Here’s where it gets interesting. A new study published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found that runners who maintained a steady pace for 90 minutes experienced a 3% drop in their VO max, and a 7% drop after 120 minutes. Turns out VO max isn’t absolute; it changes with effort. So do other endurance factors. Work too hard for too long and your ability to keep performing at that level decreasesregardless of willpower, persistence, and determination. The cost on your bodyand, in workplace terms, on your mindof maintaining a fast early pace gets higher and higher until holding that pace becomes impossible. No matter how hard you try to keep grinding. That’s takeaway No. 1: Your pace, over the course of a day or week or month or year, needs to be sustainable. No matter how fast the start, producing a steady 70 widgets an hour over an eight-hour shift beats a reverse hockey-stick 63 widgets an hour. But you can also ramp up your steady, sustainable pace. Self-imposed limits Working economyhow efficiently you perform certain tasksis relatively easy to improve. (Here are 90 ways.) The less effort a task requires, the less hard you have to work, and as a result, the easier you can maintain a steady pace. Where improving productivity and overall output are concerned, streamlining and optimizing should always be the first steps. Then focus on your “lactate threshold” and “VO max.” Unless a solid chunk of manual labor is involved, your job likely doesn’t involve a high degree of physical fatigue. But every job involves mental fatigue. And every job feels like it has limits. You can only do so much until you can’t do more. Except you can. The 40% Rule is a concept popularized by former Navy SEAL Dave Goggins through entrepreneur Jesse Itzlers 2016 book Living With a Seal: 31 Days Training With the Toughest Man on the Planet: When your mind tells you that youre exhausted, youre really only 40% done. You still have 60% left in your tank. In short, you have more in you than you think. When youre doing something difficult and think you need to stop, you have more in you. Most of our limits are self-imposed. Over time, we’ve set those limits for ourselves. They don’t come close to lactate threshold, much less VO max. That doesn’t mean you need to squeeze out the remaining 60%. But you could try to eke out another 5%. The 40% Rule How long you’ll stick with a challenge before giving up and moving on? That’s not really a limit. How long you’ll stare at a whiteboard, trying to think of a way past a problem, before giving up and moving on? That’s not really a limit. How many calls you’ll make, emails you’ll send, proposals you’ll create, follow-ups you’ll make? Those limits only seem real. But they arent real. They’re just habits. Think of a time when fear helped you push past what you thought was a barrier. Think about a time when a huge incentive helped you push past what you thought was a barrier. Then, you could do more. Because it turns out your limit was only 40% of what you were truly capable of achieving. The next time you think youve reached your cold-call limit, make one more. The next time you think youve reached your employee development meeting limit, conduct one more. The next time you think youve reached your quality double-check limit, check one more order. Challenge yourself to see if you can endure just a little more. Youll find out you can. What’s more, youll realize that a limit you thought was absolute was only self-imposedand that you can accomplish a lot more than you once thought possible. Over a really long period of time. Without burning out. By Jeff Haden This article originally appeared on Fast Company‘s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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If this week had a mood, it would be change is comingready or not. Across industries, big players made moves they hope will future-proof their businesses, while others scrambled to adapt to new realities. Tech leaders leaned into bold experiments, retailers weighed expansion against contraction, and the markets reacted with their usual mix of enthusiasm and side-eye. Policy shifts sent ripple effects through sectors that depend on global talent and international travel. In the corporate world, some companies are making high-stakes bets on emerging technologies, while others are dealing with leadership shake-ups, financial pressures, or both. And in between the serious boardroom decisions and billion-dollar strategies, there were moments that reminded us how unpredictableand occasionally absurdthe business landscape can be. Wells Fargo goes all in on AI with Google Cloud Wells Fargo is rolling out Googles Agentspace AI across its workforcefrom branch tellers to top executives. The bank says the tech will help speed up workflows, automate routine tasks, and deliver sharper insights, all while staying within strict compliance and ethical guidelines. Trump crackdown pushes international students toward the U.K. and Asia Stricter U.S. visa policies and heightened scrutiny are driving prospective students to universities in Britain, Hong Kong, and beyond, potentially costing the U.S. billions in tuition and local spending. Crypto exchange Bullish preps IPO despite steep losses Bullish plans to raise up to $629 million in its NYSE debut. Backed by BlackRock and ARK, the listing tests whether investor enthusiasm for crypto can outpace concerns about a $348 million quarterly loss. T.J. Maxx is opening 6 new stores this month The off-price retailer is expanding in Virginia, Connecticut, North Dakota, Utah, and Washington, D.C., even as tariffs loom over the retail sector. The news comes a little over a year after CEO Ernie Herrman announced the companys goal of adding 1,300 stores to its global portfolio of locations during a quarterly earnings call. At Home to close more stores amid bankruptcy The home furnishings chain announced this week that it will shutter six additional locations, on top of 26 announced earlier, as it works to manage $2 billion in debt under Chapter 11 protection. U.S. to require $15,000 visa bond for some travelers A one-year pilot program will mandate refundable bonds for visitors from countries with high overstay rates or limited vetting processes. On Tuesday, a notice from the State Department said travelers from Malawi and Zambia would be required to post the bonds. Other countries could be added to the list in the future. Claires files for second bankruptcy, eyes store closures Claire’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time this week. The teen and tween retailer has identified 18 stores for likely closure, with more than 1,300 at risk unless a buyer emerges. Eli Lilly outpaces Novo Nordisk in weight-loss marketbut stock dips Mounjaro and Zepbound sales are surging, yet investors were underwhelmed by trial data for Lillys oral GLP-1 pill. Hulu brand to fold into Disney+ in 2025 Say goodbye to Hulu. Disney announced this week that it will merge Hulu content into its flagship streaming app, streamlining offerings ahead of its ESPN streaming launch. Duolingos “AI first” gamble pays off Despite backlash over replacing contractors with AI, the language-learning platform posted an 84% profit growth and a 24% stock surge. Trump calls for Intel CEOs resignation over China ties President Trump criticized Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tans past investments in Chinese chip companies, intensifying political scrutiny of Intels leadership.
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