Author: Raj Raghunathan
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As you’ll learn toward the end of this book, beyond basic necessities and adequate health, it takes just three things to be happy: (1) great social relationships, (2) a sense of purpose (doing something meaningful), and (3) a “positive” attitude toward life—an attitude that lets you feel a sense of being in control even in challenging times.
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We remember the past as having been more pleasant for two main reasons. First, we tend to cope better with the big negative events than we expect to; so the impact of a romantic breakup or of the failure to get a dream job seldom lingers as long as we think it will. Second, we tend to give the negative events from our past a positive spin over time; thus, the heartbreak from being rejected for a prom date or the embarrassment from failing an important exam become, in due course, stories that make our life more colorful, rather than ones that cast a dark shadow on it.
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It is precisely because past negative events become more positive in our memory that women agree to go through a second childbirth and authors agree to write a second book.
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The fact that we were happier as kids than we are as adults raises an important question: what did we know as kids that we forget as adults? Or, more to the point: what do we know now, but did not as kids, that is hurting our happiness?
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The S-and-S, by definition, have superior IQ, greater drive, superior critical-thinking ability, a better work ethic, and so on.
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The negative mental chatter of the students falls into three main categories: Thoughts related to inferiority Thoughts about lack of love and connectivity with others Thoughts about lack of control