so for starters don't take happiness
at face value all right happiness is
associated
with feel-good moments and with forcing
situations to be good so we feel good we
want that out of relationships out of
restaurants out of travel
and i say if you want to be
let's say call it happy
give that up let things be
roll with the punches
life is full of everything and you just
need to experience it all that was my
dad's response when i asked him for
words of advice on happiness but first
let me back things up and explain why he
and i were wearing beanies in the middle
of summer
[Music]
not too long ago i embarked on a journey
to the happiest countries in the world
to learn about what makes a joyous life
this was sparked by my own desire to
live more meaningfully as i sometimes
feel like i can fall off track by
getting too competitive or in my own
head my adventures began in the
netherlands with my friend sadia and in
this episode episode 2 in the series i
went somewhere far more remote
this time i'm joined by the most
important man in my life let me
introduce you to my dad a lover of
classical music and old radiohead
on his own spiritual journey to figuring
out what life is all about
youtube moment
that's you're calling it a youtube
moment he and i went on a road trip
through iceland the fourth happiest
country in the world and i think we
found some answers to my questions that
i'm excited to share with you not a
formula for happiness per se but a
framework to operate within talk to me
about the waterfall or passing
the first thing that iceland taught me
was the danger of expectations it's an
incredibly unpredictable place
literally can't see anything well we
wanted adventure didn't we
with sunglasses
yeah this is bright as [ __ ] the perfect
example of this came to light on our
very first day in the country what we
didn't realize was that the weather like
many things in life cannot be controlled
so what are you thinking we just got to
the volcano site just got to the
location actually to the parking lot
which is the parking lot of the volcano
what does that mean yeah it means what
do you mean we're at the parking lot hey
what's ahead of us the volcano
yeah
come on rna have a hike can you narrate
all right no no no no no we have a one
and a half hour hike ahead of us right i
told you every day wonderful just as we
were about to begin our hike we were
told that there was zero visibility and
that we would have to turn around
i was devastated
so work i know we're kind of bummed out
things are not working out the way we
thought the weather
sucks we didn't check now we know to
check before we go anywhere we can
figure out other things to do and just
kind of like roll with it um okay let's
try let's check it out let's do it
it was a reality check on expectations
and those began the lessons that iceland
would teach me yesterday
i was feeling a little bit frustrated
because i had all these things that i
wanted to do
here there's so much to do and see in
iceland i wanted to do it all
and so i wrote down this thought late
last night i went unhappiness is wishing
that things were another way
that is exactly what i felt was
happening last night i felt like i was
wishing things were another way
and that was what was making me unhappy
it wasn't the fact that things were
going a certain way or not it was my
attachment like my i want this to be
another way
so just a reminder i guess i mean
clearly i still deal with
frustration and
unhappiness as much as anybody
but i think putting in words like that
just makes it easier to notice it and
then i put alternatively
an alternative
to
this unhappiness is purpose
on the other hand is about finding
meaning making sense of how things are
you know and i like that because it's a
shift in perspective in a way because
you're not fighting how things are
you're seeking to understand how things
are and how things operate and whatnot
it's sort of like being an observer
instead of
i don't know being some sort of
conquistador who's like on this
conquest
to to make things a certain way you know
like that is not how
how life works i don't think yeah those
are kind of my thoughts on that the
following day we tried our luck one more
time we're going to the volcano and the
weather's way better so did you just say
volcano sir i said erupting volcano wow
we couldn't see
any of this
our first attempt
what do you think of this i i don't know
how we're gonna make it down once we get
down there easy but
what do you think of this moment what
we're doing right now uh
i love it i mean this is great we'll
figure it out but yeah living life i
can't believe where i am right now
i was ecstatic when we finally saw the
lava but the thing that was bringing me
the most joy was the adventure with my
dad i asked him for words of wisdom on
happiness this is what he said
so in our family we do work around what
things mean right
life is full of everything and you just
need to experience it all
experience it within yourself and that's
how you find what we what we
associate with happiness with feeling
full and good and rich you've known me
growing up me and restaurants right the
waiter and the food and
if you just like fight if i stop judging
having no expectations
saying they're gonna serve me what
they're gonna serve me the waiter will
be who they are and let it be
you know i mean out of that come
pleasant surprises
but also just accepting what's going on
and being with the experience of having
whatever meal
right without expectation i think that
goes for everything add expectations to
the formula and things get very
stressful
you struggle they get ugly in no time
and so i think we just did that last
night we had a thing we just had to
relax you know and just let things
happen and that's how you end up having
a good time
this honestly has to be one of the most
incredible things i've ever seen
in person with my own eyes and every few
minutes the volcano just reactivates and
it's just shooting out into the sky
the lava is flowing on the other side
absolutely incredible
i think one of the things that made this
trip really really special was that i
was able to have all these spontaneous
special moments with my dad and i was
able to capture some of them okay
so check this out
look okay show the beers
beautiful beers right
tomato beers
do you taste the tomato
i i want to say that i do i don't think
i do and something about these
spontaneous moments
really helped me get clarity if you will
on some of my ideas revolving around
happiness so i want to dedicate the
second portion of this video to that
framework that i was referencing at the
very beginning this isn't a formula um i
don't think there is a formula and i
think that getting to attach to that can
be a way to sort of miss the whole point
but even then i've always enjoyed
thinking about this kind of thing sort
of sharing my thoughts on this and i'd
love to hear your thoughts on what what
i share here
[Music]
part two
a framework for a joyous life
we're hoping uh this will be comfortable
enough
storage right there goes pretty deep
our sleeping quarters
so we just got to the town here i mean
i'm getting to see what it looks like
this is interesting if you look around
building design colors more colorful
yeah um and and we're like even a
distance now from where the crowd is so
yeah looking forward to it nice before
my dad and i explored deeper into the
island i got the opportunity to ask a
few of the locals what their thoughts on
happiness were this is so awesome i
didn't know if i was going to meet
icelandic people really yeah or i mean
if you've been here for four years you
said or eight years yeah eight days yeah
so you're basically icelandic
i guess i'm just curious what your
thoughts are on happiness and if you
feel like there's anything about this
country that makes it so that it ranks
so highly
it's like a really
grounding place i really want to
understand this why do you think this is
i think the nature mostly for me it's
very special like just all the water the
water falls the it's so raw and real
i just got to this remote area
everything is a hike here
but just stunningly beautiful
look at this
oh this is so nice
[Music]
oh it's heavenly
this is heavenly
and it's so cool because there's nobody
here look where that freak you are this
is insane
i feel like here you have space to be
yourself and
to explore nature and
spend time alone in nature and really
get to connect with yourself
[Music]
oh my goodness
look
at who is watching me from above do you
see that
little goats
oh three little goatees hold on hold on
just literally surrounded by
nature and of course
my little babies
in my opinion
the great killer of joy is attachment
and attachments can look like many
different things one example i often
give is that expectations are an
attachment to a certain outcome you're
locked in on things being a certain way
and so in a sense in that kind of line
of thinking i think one of the keys to
happiness to joy
has to be
openness
spontaneity
sharing basically openness to the things
that happen to you
all right
what's going on son of mine
the sore beams haven't been activated
yet would you put us into hyperspeed
we're closing the gap where i'm gonna
have to activate the final sector let's
go
[Music]
we're currently in a little town called
vic
uh on the southern coast of iceland
it is almost 11 p.m right now and as you
can see it's not dark like at all it's
kind of weird last night it didn't get
dark and look at what is behind me like
how can you not be happy in such a
gorgeous place
purpose seems to matter a lot too
purpose seems really important in having
the energy to do things out in the world
feeling like you're part of something
contributing somehow and i think it's a
windy journey finding that thing it's
not always clear what it is or
alternatively that purpose can change
over time so what first of all what is
your name uh a state leicester bassin
dad you're making this work excuse me
i'm documenting you're making this worse
i asked for permission
no no it's fun what are you worried
about
can you not oh my god okay
what do you think are the biggest
contributors to your happiness
just knowing there's a purpose
and and you know if you really think
about it there's no like one purpose so
you have to find your own purpose
because there's nothing black and white
because i i know you know you're not
going to find a purpose trying to look
for it in like you know things and stuff
because things are just things so you
have to try to you know make something
out of it yeah if that makes sense yeah
it does it does you know i don't know
it's complicated it makes more sense in
my mind such a challenge man you know
people say happiness
can be such a
simple easy thing but sometimes it feels
so elusive it's all you know
subjective
so what we've been trying to do on this
trip is to check in with you know
ourselves go inwardly and find out what
is it that we want to do what's right
for us to do and it came to a point
where we could have
follow the same path back to reykjavik
and travel four and a half hours and see
a lot of what we've seen already and
we're like you know it'd be worth to go
around the island put in some hours
tonight some hours tomorrow
and experience things we may never see
the combination of colors
and uh
textures i mean this guy keeps moving
this solid he's surprised you can see it
wow
this is the seal
oh there's a seal right there
whoa
wow
i wasn't shooting anything for a change
just watching taking it in spectacular
zen master i'm glad the wind is blowing
that way right now
yeah imagine looking forward to getting
hit by 80 to 100 degrees celsius water
so i think it's time to pull together
all the pieces to this framework that
we've been exploring
i kind of like to think of joy as
openness plus purpose minus attachments
i'm not saying this is the answer you
know but it's a good reminder
wow
you know it reminds me of what matters
in life that's so nice
sometimes i get hung up on the dumbest
things
and that doesn't get me anywhere
this was an amazing trip thanks to you
dad i'm grateful for your words of
wisdom
tonight and tomorrow morning we might be
late delivering the car but really who
cares
so this video is sponsored by skillshare
who have been amazing supporters of this
channel for a very long time and whose
support has allowed me to take trips
like this one i have created three
classes on there all of which have
received incredible reactions in those
classes i teach how to intentionally
capture your life how to find your voice
as an artist on the internet and the
third one is on how to speak confidently
on camera and of course skillshare has
built up their catalog over the years to
include all kinds of amazing material my
brother has taken a class how to play
guitar for example so there's a lot of
stuff on there if you're interested in
checking it out the first 000 of you
guys that use the link down below can
get two months of skillshare premium for
free a year-long membership comes out to
less than 10 a month if you do end up
taking one of my classes i would
absolutely love to hear what you think
means a lot to me and once again thank
you so much to skillshare for sponsoring
this video and thank you to all of you
guys for watching i'll see you soon what
are we about to do father so we are
about to look at you in the camera
look right here um
about to go to the volcano uh we just
parked
uh used the app to or the whatever the
website to pay that that those are
unimportant details the volcano parts
exciting for people to know
so that you know it's easy to pay easy
to like it was easy to get here are you
serious yes oh my gosh
oh my goodness
isn't that bright and sunny it's like a
sorbet yeah
whoa
bright and sunny
like me right when i wake up in the
morning
a little spanish french glenn
what's that hanging in the rain
it rains it is up
you have some nice wet underwear waiting
for it
we actually slept pretty well we're up
it's just like how to get going now all
things considered life's pretty good i
say damn good right now
[Music]
you