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#OneBillionHappy: why living a happy life is vital for mankind’s survival

After the tragic loss of his son, top Google exec Mo Gawdat quit his job to dedicate his life to spreading happiness — for the sake of all our futures.

#OneBillionHappy

Making one billion people happy is Mo Gawdat’s goal in life. This personal moonshot is Mo’s mission to deliver his happiness message to one billion people around the world to honour the peaceful life of his son, Ali, who passed away unexpectedly during a routine medical procedure.

After losing his son, Mo Gawdat dedicates his life to spreading happiness After the tragic death of his son, Mo Gawdat quit his top job at Google and wrote bestseller ‘Solve for Happy’. He dedicates his life to spreading happiness as he believes being happy is our birth right and of vital importance for the future of mankind. Source: Facebook/BrightVibes

Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path To Joy

About Ali

Seventeen days after the death of his son, Ali, former Google Chief Business Officer Mo Gawdat began to write and couldn’t stop. His topic was happiness—an unlikely subject given the circumstances.

To Mo, Ali truly was an angel. He made everything he touched better and everyone he met happier. He was always peaceful, always happy and Mo says you couldn’t miss his energy or how he affectionately cared for every being that ever crossed his path.

Mo Gawdat's wise son Ali, who's wisedom and smile motivated Mo to start his journey to spread happiness

Ali Mawdat Mo Gawdat’s wise son Ali, who’s wisedom and smile motivated Mo to start his journey to spread happiness Source: All rights reserved – Mo Gawdat

About Mo

After working for IBM and Microsoft, Mo Gawdat landed a job at Google and helped launch the platform in more than 50 emerging markets across the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. He then joined Google [x] as Chief Business Officer and lived at the very cutting edge of technology.

Mo Gawdat is the author of Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy, an international bestseller translated in 28 languages. He left Google [x] in February 2018 to dedicate the rest of his life and resources to onebillionhappy.org

Mo Gawdat - author of bestseller

Mo Gawdat Mo Gawdat – author of bestseller “Solve for Happiness”, founder of onebillionhappy.org Source: Photo by Rosalien Derkinderen

About the Book

Mo Gawdat’s book shares an engineer’s search for happiness, a topic traditionally approached from a spiritual or psychological perspective. Through 12 years of research, Mo created an algorithm to reach a state of happiness regardless of life’s circumstances.

Mo believes that no matter what obstacles we face, what burdens we bear, what trials we’ve experienced, we can all be content with our present situation and optimistic about the future.

Below: watch Mo Gawdat explain why he left Google, and why this might be the single most important mission of our generation.

Source: OneBillionHappy

Join the Movement #onebillionhappy “Here is why I am leaving Google. This might be the single most important mission of our generation.” — Mo Gawdat. Please watch this video and play your part by paying it forward. Source: Facebook/OneBillionHappy

#onebillionhappy: a personal moonshot Mo Gawdat asks you to join

On the website for #onebillionhappy, Gawdat has a personal message for us:

‘Ali’s death was a blow I never could have expected, but when I look back, I feel that he somehow knew. Two days before his unexpected departure, he sat us all down as a wise grandfather would gather his children and said he had something important to share. He said he understood that it might seem odd for him to offer advice to his parents but that he felt compelled to do it.’

Usually Ali spoke very little, but now he took his time and spent most of it telling Nibal, Aya, and me what he loved most about us. He thanked us kindly for what we had contributed to his life. His words warmed our hearts, and then he asked each of us to do some specific things.’

‘My hope is that by sharing Ali’s message—his peaceful way of living—I may be able to honor his memory and continue his legacy. I tried to imagine the positive impact spreading this message could create, and I wondered if maybe it is not for nothing that I have a high-profile job with global reach. So I took on an ambitious mission: to help one billion people become happier, a movement #onebillionhappy that I ask you to join so that together we can create a small-scale global pandemic of Ali-style joy.’

Click to subscribe to the newsletters and receive updates about latest movements, events and what you can do in your country to spread the message of #onebillionhappy.

By creating a global pandemic we can make the world a happier place. Remember, happiness is your birthright.

To Mo, Ali truly was an angel. He made everything he touched better and everyone he met happier. He was always peaceful, always happy and Mo says you couldn’t miss his energy or how he affectionately cared for every being that ever crossed his path.

”The gravity of the battle means nothing to those at peace” To Mo, Ali truly was an angel. He made everything he touched better and everyone he met happier. He was always peaceful, always happy and Mo says you couldn’t miss his energy or how he affectionately cared for every being that ever crossed his path. Source: OneBillionHappy.org

How can you achieve happiness in your own life?

“Start by making happiness a priority,” says Gawdat. “To be happy doesn’t mean to be naïve or even challenging. Happy people on average are 12 percent more productive than those who are not. This means more growth, more productivity and faster learning. It’s a wise choice for any leader. But the trick is this: If you decide to have a happy work culture, you must declare that happiness is a top priority. It’s a choice. And when other things contradict with that priority, choose happiness. Next, you must apply the simple rules of happiness on a daily basis: set clear expectations, hold yourself and each other to account and remember that happiness is about we, not me.”.

Gawdat proposes an algorithm based on a practical understanding of how the brain processes joy and sadness. Put that in an equation and it’s elegantly simple.

 “Happiness is equal to or greater than the difference between the way you view the events in your life minus your expectations about how life should behave. Which means that if you perceive the events as equal to or greater than your expectations, you’re happy–or at least not unhappy.” 

So this is the secret of happiness. In other words, happiness happens when life seems to be going your way. You feel happy when life plays out the way you expect it to. However, the opposite also holds true. Gawdat says “If you can change your thinking and you change your approach to life’s events you will find happiness.”

Source: Inc.com

Make an Impact

Join the movement by following these three simple steps

Step 1. Make happiness your first priority and recognise that happiness is your birthright. Step 2. Invest in your happiness by visiting the Happiness Library for free or purchasing Solve for Happy. Step 3. Tell two people about the message you have learned, who will tell two people, who will tell two people...#onebillionhappy is a five year target.