How to Experience True Happiness | Rainn Wilson EP 393

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:10What was the number one key to happiness from all these different individuals you met around the world? Do you know about the grant study out of Harvard University? 75-year study? Yeah. Yes. 75-year study, 300 men at Harvard University, searching for what makes a good life. All these data points, thousands of data points over the decades. The final doctor overseeing the study, Dr. George Valant, his final culmination was the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people. So wherever I went in the world and I saw people succeeding at well-being, at inspiration and happiness, contentment, they're connected to other people.

0:53It's community. And I think as Gavar Mate talks about the relationships with others, but also the relationship to ourselves and making sure we have a good relationship with self. It's hard to have great relationships with others if we don't have a beautiful relationship with self, if we don't accept, have compassion for ourselves or the parts of ourselves that we are most ashamed of or guilty or insecure about. And so I think it's a two-part thing. It's like having great relationships with others, but also developing a quality relationship with self. For me, it's inspiring to see you continue to develop a beautiful relationship with yourself so that you can be of service more in these other ways that you're doing with this book and the show that you have going on.

1:31So I'm excited about that. You mentioned this earlier in the interview about comparison. And I'm curious, how can someone learn to not compare themselves to others in an industry? You know, whether it's acting or sports or business or podcasting or books, whatever it is. Did you compare yourself a lot when you were kind of becoming famous and rising up in this space? Or were you pretty focused on your own race and you weren't thinking about what everyone else was doing? And if so, how did you overcome that comparison mentality? So Theodore Roosevelt said, comparison is the thief of joy. If you are looking for joy, if you're looking for bliss, contentment, and self-acceptance, that's a good place to start.

2:12stop comparing yourself to others because you just don't know their circumstances. You don't know your circumstances. There were a lot of people that I was incredibly envious of early on in my career. Really? In theater in New York. Oh, it's something I've struggled with my whole life. I mean, I've really let it go now, but they had their moment in, let's say, New York theater in the 90s. Broadway or whatever it is. Yeah, exactly. And then I've had my moment. We all have our moments if you have talent, and it's a really important one of like, Like, it's, I don't know if there's any kind of miracle to it.

2:45It's just, stop it. Don't do it. Just don't compare yourself. That's it. Action items that you can make your life better. Number one, stop comparing yourself to others. I love that. So imagine hypothetical scenario. You get to live as long as you want, but eventually it's your last day on this earth. And you get to create, accomplish, be, do all the things you want to do from this moment until then. But for whatever reason in this hypothetical scenario, you've got to take all of your work with you. So no one has access to this book or any podcast you've ever done or any interview. It all goes somewhere else, hypothetical.

3:20But you get to leave behind three truths that you've learned throughout your life, three lessons that you'd share with the world. What would be those three truths for you that you'd share? One is what's something that I know for sure. I know for sure that I'm a spiritual being having a human experience. I would say another truth is that storytelling is one of the most powerful forces on planet Earth. Humans need to storytell. We thrive when we tell stories. Write poems. Make movies. Tell our stories. Share our personal details. Connect with people. Talk. You can do it professionally. You can be a professional storyteller.

3:59Film and television and theater. In fiction, you can do it in your daily life. But that is one of the most powerful and important forces. And I would say, too, the other thing is we need more joy and hope in the world. And one of the greatest services that we can ever give to people is to bring them joy and bring them hope. That's where the work lies.

4:28Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation. And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

5:18Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.