What are you doing Michael?

What are you doing Michael?

a presentation about what’s wrong with him

help you understand why Michael is so

irresponsible, immature, defensive, stubborn…

The goal of this document

*the goal is not to make you agree with me

this has lots to do with everything

since young, Dad has always taught me to ask WHY

Early influence - ask WHY

The Good Life Path

generally, a good life looks this:

Good College

Good Grades

Good Job

Good Girlfriend

Good 2nd Job

Good Wife

Good 1st House

Good Kids

Good 2nd House

Help Your Kids Repeat This Cycle

TheGood Life

Me & The Good Life

Good College

Good Grades

Good Job

Good Girlfriend

Good 2nd Job

Good Wife

Good 1st House

Good Kids

Good 2nd House


like everyone else, with the help of our family, I worked really hard up until here

TheGood Life

the successful Michael

The WHY

Good College

Good Grades

Good Job

Good Girlfriend

Good 2nd Job

Good Wife

Good 1st House

Good Kids

Good 2nd House


since The Good Life seems so normal and time is so precious in this big race,

I never stopped to think about WHY we are doing all these

TheGood Life

?

Is it about happiness?

an obvious guess that came to mind was happiness we only live once, we might as well live a

happy life right?

*happy here doesn’t mean pleasure or temporary enjoyment

The Good Life = effective?

then I looked at myself and everyone around me, are we happy?

The Good Life seemed to be very effective for some things, but not all

*the Maslow’s Human Needs pyramid

The Good Life Rollercoasters in The Good Life, we work really hard to achieve our future goals and expect that once we

reach that goal, our life will be dramatically happier, but it’s not true,

we focus on the future goals so much that this becomes our life …

happiness level

2 weeks of Woohoo! I got into

UC Berkeley

4 years of stressing to achieve

the Good 1st Job

3 years of stressing to achieve

the Good College

The Good Life ≠ effectiveThe Good Life sure made us more successful and well-off, but happier?

in the past 30 years, our stress level has also increased by nearly 30%,

and Americans diagnosed with depression is also increasing by 20% a year, why?

Could we be happier?

I like to challenge the possibility of doing something better,

for me, there must be a way to live a

happier life

so I decided to find out how

The Great Risk

but I worked so hard to position myself well in The Good Life path, if I go on a search now, there’s an obvious risk of

being off track

The Good Life

a happier life?

riskriskriskrisk

risk

The Happiness Journey

but if I can use 1-2 years to make rest of my 60 years happier, it’s a good bet, so I went ahead

during this journey I did these to try to find the formula of happiness: reading, researching, trials and errors

and most importantly…

Travelinguse my own eyes to witness how other cultures find their happiness

The Happiness Formulaafter all, I believe the happiness formula looks something like this:

- family - friends - community Achievement

20%

Attitude 30% Health

20%

Relationships 30%

- physical - mental

- gratitude - positivity - confidence - compassion

- passions - do what you

are good at - be valued

Pursue happinessand here are some of the things I’ve already started to do

- swimming daily - big change in diet - change in lifestyle - meditation

- allocate more time and energy to important people in my life

- (this document is an example of me trying)

- meditation - mindfullness - pursue wisdom

- family - friends - community Achievement

20%

Attitude 30% Health

20%

Relationships 30%

- physical - mental

- gratitude - positivity - confidence - compassion



?

But is life just about happiness?

happiness is great, and with handwork, we can sure achieve a happier life,

but then I asked myself again,

is life just about being happy?

or is there something else?

How about other people?one of the most important thing that I learned during my travels is that

we live in a bubble, we worry about silly things and The Good Life,

while we have no idea how rest of the world is suffering

But what can you do?

we think we are here

our bubble tells us we are not in the position to care about others

because we need to help ourselves first, but this is the reality…

majority of the world

wealth, power, quality of life, and etc..



we are actually here







we are actually here

we think we need to be here to be secure and then we can help others





So what’s wrong?if everyone thinks like this, then the world will only continue to suffer,

how am I going to be happy knowing that

I’m not doing anything about it?

we think we need to be here to be secure and THEN we can do something


???


Life with a purpose?

I don’t want to live a life worrying about my own silly problems everyday,

I want to wake up feeling thrilled that…

today, I’m doing something great for others

What do you mean?

It means I want to…

solve real problems, make real impacts,

which is NOT solving problems like these…

- help ticket brokers sell over-priced tickets - help rich students do better than poor students who can’t afford tutors - help people eat more hot dogs - help Google Offers sell more stuff that people don’t need

(my past work)

In summary…

this is how I want my life to look like

Happiness Purpose

Next Page

Purpose -> Happiness

and the two actually work very well together

Achievement 20%

Attitude 30% Health

20%

Relationships 30%



Purpose

Good story, but what now?

I need a strong foundation to make this vision come true

Happiness Purpose

Foundation

The Foundation I need two things, financial security and wisdom

WisdomFinancial Security

Happiness

Purpose

I don’t need lots of money to be happy, but I do need money to sustain my or my future family’s lifestyle to feel secure

How can I solve other people’s problems while I don’t have enough to feel comfortable or secure?

Wisdom will help me live a happier life by making me a more positive, appreciative, and compassionate person

Wisdom will give me the clarity and mental capacity I need to solve big problems, especially during difficult times

The Projectionby achieving financial security and wisdom, I hope to follow this projection:

a happy and purposeful life

Financial Security

Wisdom

Happiness

Purpose

Time

The Lifeand live a life like this

happiness level

achieving something

meaningful to others and myself

- appreciate small things in life, - spend quality time with

people I love - being healthy - work hard for a purpose

Spiritual

What are you doing Michael?