22. Rajagopal Raghunathan: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?

My guest is Raj Raghunathan, a professor of marketing at the McCombs School of business at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the author of, If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? And he is the author behind one of the most popular, massively open online courses ever created. A course on Coursera called A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment that has been participated in by more than 250,000 students. It’s available to you online at no cost right now. Raj explains consumption behavior through themes from psychology, behavioral science, decision theory and marketing. He talks to the smart and successful, that’s who he’s writing for. People who have already accomplished a lot, people who are intelligent but maybe don’t yet experienced the level of happiness that they want or they don’t experience it as easily and as often as they’d like. We go deep on the topic of gratitude, something that can be trite, feel like something on a hallmark card. But Raj gets into the how and why it works, why it matters and how we can use it more effectively. In a final part of the interview, he talks a little bit about procrastination, how to overcome it, and how to overcome inertia that might keep you stuck. So I think you’ll find something that you can implement into your life and your creative endeavors. Enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Raj Raghunathan. SUMMARY00:03:04 – Raj explains what life’s about.00:08:16 – Why does the world need a book on happiness?00:18:07 – The genie exercise.00:27:48 – Is it really that simple?00:52:24 – The link between generosity and happiness.01:05:33 – Alternative definition of happiness.01:17:54 – Lightening round.01:41:54 – Raj’s lightning krkyptonite.01:53:34 – The book proposal.02:11:56 – Procrastination. LINKS – (In order of appearance)If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? by Rajagopal RaghunathanA Life of Happiness and Fulfillment Coursera CourseHappysmarts.com – Raj website.The post 22. Rajagopal Raghunathan: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? first appeared on School for Good Living Podcasts.