Self-Sustainability and the Happiness Advantage

People throughout time and around the world have survived many different scenarios. For the most part these situations have not only been drastically different, but have had emotional tolls on the people involved. Some people remain happy and some do not. This leads to the question why? Why is it that some people surviving in poverty, surviving a natural disaster or in the future “Surviving an EMP Strike or Solar Flare”, and that people still find happiness?

Happiness increases Sustainability

Society knows very well about misery and how to live with problems. We understand that life is not perfect and that mistakes are made. People often times prepare with the worst in mind without realizing that they are training their minds to miss the positives that are in front of them.  We, as Preppers strive to eliminate the bad that comes from not being prepared only to produce the average. We should be striving to produce the better and focus on the best. Navigating negativity out and implementing positivity in its place. Every day the Best and Brightest Preppers sacrifice happiness for success, because we all have been taught that if we work harder we will be successful. When, in fact, we are more successful when we are happier. When we help each other, teach each other, build our communities, and prepare together we are much happier.

We are what we believe we are

“In a study performed by Margaret Shih and her colleagues at Harvard, a group of Asian women were given similar math tests on two separate occasions. The First time around they were primed to think about the fact that they were women, stereotypically worse at math than men. The second time around, they were told to focus on their identity as Asians, generally thought to be math whizzes compared to other ethnic groups. The result: The women performed far better in the second situation than they did in the first. Their math IQs hadn’t changed and neither had the difficulty of the questions. But in the second instance they believed more in their abilities, and this was enough to make a substantive difference in performance.” The Happiness Advantage, page 74.  I believe that we are what we believe we are. If we believe that we can make a rocket stove out of junk than we can. People become more creative, positive, thought provoking, self-sustainable, and prepared when they are Happier. There is nothing else that directs our actions more than what we believe.

We should try to fail on purpose

Say What!? Yes that’s right, you should be trying to fail. Some companies fail on purpose to ignite their inner creativity, sparking problem solving solutions that would not be thought of unless failure took place. Build scenarios around failing systems and think about alternative solutions beyond your current understanding. Creativity is the beginning of self-sustainability. And guess what? When we focus on becoming positive we become more creative. “Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation” The Happiness Advantage, page 91.