I wrap up our series on Misbelief with The Big Idea, The Big Takeaway & The Big Action where I distill it all down to what most stood out to me. What I see are the foundational fundamentals of the issue so we can better understand, embrace, and take action on how to better serve ourselves and humanity with our beliefs. Or as you’ll soon hear, our letting go of beliefs, as we tend to understand them in our culture. Our catalyst again has been Duke University professor of psychology and behavioral economics Dan Arielly and the message from his book, MISBELIEF: WHAT MAKES RATIONAL PEOPLE BELIEVE IRRATIONAL THINGS.

We continue our discussion on misbelief and strive to get to the heart of how our beliefs primarily exist to serve and protect us. However they are seldom if ever, fact. I want you to hear that. Few if any of your beliefs are fact. They are not right and other’s are wrong. And a dramatic amount of your current problems and stresses and relational issues are due to your unhealthy relationship with your so called beliefs. Duke University professor of psychology and behavioral economics Dan Arielly claims they are mostly in truth, “misbeliefs.” His book, MISBELIEF: WHAT MAKES RATIONAL PEOPLE BELIEVE IRRATIONAL THINGS, is our muse for this series. My co host this discussion is my brother, Jared Angaza. Who every once in a while I’ll remind you that while our last names are different and we look nothing alike, we have the same parents. Supposedly. But through a lifetime of pursuing wisdom, we’ve seen the early beliefs of our upbringing…change. Evolve. Get rejected. So we’re going to try and get to some root issues of what our beliefs are actually useful for, and when they are not. And ultimately I hope we can showcase the great freedom there is in trading in the word belief, for the term of…faith.

We continue our series on belief…by looking at misbelief. We’re back with our expert, Dan are-ee-elly, to see what drives him. And we’ll give special attention to the beliefs that drive him. Dan again is an Israeli-American professor and author who serves as a James B. Duke Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. Ariely is the co-founder of several companies implementing insights from behavioral science. His latest book, and our muse for this series is MISBELIEF: WHAT MAKES RATIONAL PEOPLE BELIEVE IRRATIONAL THINGS.

You’ve heard me talk often as of late about what I’ve grown to believe are the dangers of our individual and cultural beliefs. We all want to know what is and what is not and be able to count on it. That’s human nature. But the more I’ve learned in my lifetime, the more of my past beliefs I no longer believe. I just assume then, that many of my current beliefs, I may also change as I continue to learn more. So then what value are beliefs? And how much trust do we put in our beliefs? This is a controversial topic, as we want to believe, our beliefs, are truth and fact. But…they are not. If you can’t accept that, either run from this episode, or take a deep breath and open yourself to…freedom. Our guide for this series is Dan Ariely. Dan is an Israeli-American professor and author. He serves as a James B. Duke Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. Ariely is the co-founder of several companies implementing insights from behavioral science. His latest book, and our muse for this conversation, is MISBELIEF: WHAT MAKES RATIONAL PEOPLE BELIEVE IRRATIONAL THINGS.

We wrap up our series on Happierness featuring Atlantic columnist and Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks, and Oprah Winfrey, who just co authored the book, “Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier.” In the last episode I also talked with my brother, Jared Angaza, and we discussed further aspects of this grand, cultural pursuit of happiness and what is at the root of it. This is my Big Idea, The Big Takeaway & The Big Action episode to distill it all down, and I found six primary issues around happiness that stood out from our conversations. Let’s walk through them together.

We continue our series on Happierness which we kicked off with Atlantic columnist and Harvard Professor, Arthur Brooks. Arthur’s new book with Oprah Winfrey is called Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. This issue of happiness is significant to me for two reasons: 1) happiness is such a hot topic because we as a culture are not finding ourselves…happy, and 2) I feel we are mostly dealing with the symptoms regarding happiness and not the root issues. To dig further into what I feel are root issues, I have with me…Jared Angaza. Jared is a strategist, activist, and storyteller behind many influential brands and campaigns. And he’s my brother and business partner and someone who I ponder the topics of drive and motive and meaning with…a lot

We continue our series on Happierness with happiness researcher and evangelist Arthur Brooks. This is part two where we go behind the scenes to find out What Drives Arthur in his personal life as he strives to practice what he preaches. I appreciate that Arthur is up front with the fact that he’s not naturally prone to be in a so-called, happy state. He must proactively work at it. Me too. Arthur again is a Harvard Professor, a columnist at The Atlantic, a very in demand speaker, and author of 12 books. I had him on the show in 2023 for his book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. The message in that book continues to influence me. This time he’s back with his new book co authored with Oprah Winfrey, titled, Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Arthur is a very intentional person and deeply considers all areas of his life. When I asked him about his values regarding his career he spoke to his efforts to stay aware of the why of what he does as opposed to just the what. In his pursuit of health I found it interesting that he cited he’s not necessarily happy to be exercising, but it helps him be less unhappy overall.

In this episode we begin a series on happierness. As you're about to hear, we can't live a meaningful life and just be in a state of happy all the time. We'd actually miss out on some of the most rich aspects of our existence. And probably die early. But amongst the necessary challenges of life, we can absolutely be happier, which improves...literally everything. My expert guest on the topic, who is back with us for the second time, is Arthur Brooks. His book Strength To Strength has been pivotal for me, and so many others, and was the focus of our first series together. Arthur is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School where he teaches renowned courses on happiness. His incredibly popular, How to Build a Life column at the Atlantic was found and followed by Oprah Winfrey and now Arthur and Oprah have written a book together titled, Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. I encourage you to look at Arthur's new online workshop, The Art and Science of Happiness at scienceofhappier.com

I wrap up our series on perfectionism and how it is hurting our drive. This is the Big Idea, The Big Takeaway & The Big Action episode to distill it all down. Being a perfectionist is not something to be proud of, and it in fact points toward our inability to be authentic and a propensity to people please and perform. It points to our insecurity, not strength. My catalyst and expert for the series was Thomas Curran, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics. Thomas studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts our mental health. His TED talk on our dangerous obsession with perfectionism has received more than three million views. In part three I brought on my brother, Jared Angaza, to discuss our journeys as seeking perfectionists who thought we were being valiant but ultimately realize we were attempting to fill our self identity voids. Come with me as I boil down the highlights of what I’ve found out, and am striving to learn.