Vanessa: You know, IвЂ™m allergic to fluff. Tara: ThatвЂ™s really interesting, because Michael and I, before we вЂ¦ before we buzzed you on the Skype were just talking about how what makes you really extraordinary is this sort of crazy ability that you have to pull out really actionable, really concrete, really just, you know, take it and do it and actually run with it things from a lot of crap that is otherwise construed as woowoo. So that, thatвЂ™s where we focused a lot of our energy was on that behavior and mindset. Vanessa: And I think doesnвЂ™t work for a lot of people. So this is where we have a lot more control over our happiness, and the problem is behavior and mindset seems really fuzzy, and thatвЂ™s where we started to dig into our research of how could I change my behavior and mindset beyond whatever Cosmo and Marie Claire article has ever told us, which is just journal more. The last one is, the rest of the percent goes to our behavior and mindset. Which is why we have so many unhappy people, and why I think I was unhappy for so long. So we put 90% of our energy into 10% return. IвЂ™d better find a mate.вЂќ We like have all of these things that are almost exclusively environment, but the problem is, is thatвЂ™s only 10% of our happiness levels.

About 10% is our environment, and this is the one that really gets us tripped up, because as humans, we have the tendency to say, вЂњHmm, IвЂ™m not happy. So about 40% of our happiness is genetic, and thatвЂ™s, you know, directly from our parents, what our genes are programmed for our happiness expressions or happiness levels. It made me feel less bad about not being that happy-go-lucky person. So the big academic review, we looked at 246 happiness studies, and there is some basic happy math that I think everyone should know, and I was kind of surprised I didnвЂ™t know this.

So basically what we found is вЂ¦ so first, we did вЂ¦ I always like to start with the academic review. So what did you find? Are you normal? Or, you know, were you able to change that happiness level for yourself? And I can totally identify with that, too, because I am also not like a naturally happy person. IвЂ™m a neurotic, for sure, definitely a worrier, and so I always felt like there were, there was all these people were just like born happier than me, and I wanted to know if that was actually true from a scientific perspective, because IвЂ™m a total geek, and started to dive into it to see could I change my happiness levels as my own human guinea pig, and what would it take to do that? I am not one of those people who was sort of born as a happy-go-lucky, high positivity naturally. So it was a very personal, started as a personal adventure. IвЂ™m вЂ¦ IвЂ™d love to know what made you so interested in what makes people happy? So youвЂ™ve been doing a lot of work on the subject of happiness lately. Thanks for coming back and talking with us again. Vanessa Van Edwards, welcome back to Profit. We talk about company culture, difficult conversations, and her personal pursuit of happiness. I wanted to find out how Vanessa has been using her work on happiness to build and nurture the Science of People team. Her recent research and her newest CreativeLive class have focused on what makes us happy. SheвЂ™s also an author, sought-after speaker and trainer, and a self-described recovering awkward person. Vanessa is a behavioral investigator and the founder of the Science of People. This week, weвЂ™re bringing back listener favorite, my personal friend, and friend of CreativeLive, Vanessa Van Edwards. Our goal each week is to expose you to something new that you can immediately apply to growing your own business. Each week, I deep dive with a thriving entrepreneur on topics like time management, team building, marketing, business models, and mindset. IвЂ™m your host, Tara Gentile, and together with my friends at CreativeLive, we talk to powerhouse small business owners about the nitty gritty details of running their businesses, making money, and pursuing whatвЂ™s most important to them.

Edward pursuit of happiness movie