Happiness Power with Ed McCormick, AKA author, Robert Gill, Jr.

Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitch or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back.

818-572-2910. Good day, good day, good day everyone! How are you on this beautiful, beautiful day? And I am I'm so excited because we're going to talk about happiness. Yes, we are. We're going to talk about the power of happiness. And so what I want you to do is I want you to kind of get in your head what I always call the rich question for today based on the subject that we're going to have before I introduce our guests and get into the whole thing. So your rich question for today is going to be around the power of happiness. So on a scale of 1 to 10, it's really easy. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your level of happiness at this very moment in time? And maybe not just this moment, but maybe like the entire week. How have you been doing on a scale of 1 to 10? It's really important for you to have self-awareness and to really check in with yourself where you are when it comes to your state of being. And so our guest is really going to provide you tips and get you really excited about really wanting to understand, um, kind of the power of happiness. All right, now before we do get into all of that, I want to definitely thank our new, uh, viewers and listeners. Um, it is fabulous to have you joining us, and you're subscribing, liking, you're rating the show, you're giving us feedback on, uh, both topics and potential guests, and you're giving us feedback on the shows that we've already done and the topics we've already covered. Absolutely love that. Thank you so much. Continue to go out to all the places you might stream your podcast. At the same time, you can download them at blogtalkradio.com. Uh, you can watch us, um, on our Shed the Bitch TV YouTube channel, as well as it streams within our Shedding the Bitch Facebook page. And then you'll find— you're finding us on Twitter and LinkedIn and all of the streaming services, including Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, so forth and so on. So we are so grateful for you because it's, um, you who, uh, make our, our jobs a lot more fun and, um, and what we want to bring you a lot more valuable. And then of course we couldn't do it and you wouldn't be finding us, um, if it wasn't for our current and ongoing very loyal listenership here in the Shedding the Bitch community. Uh, we have so appreciate the ratings you're giving us, the, the comments, the likes, the follows, the subscriptions. So be sure to subscribe, um, on BlogTalkRadio, subscribe on our Shed the Bitch YouTube channel, um, and let us know where you're streaming, uh, the show so we can be sure, uh, that we are reaching as many people as possible. All right, and then lastly, definitely need to thank our ongoing sponsor, North Georgia Tax Solutions. Debbie Snelling and her team, they're powerhouses. And they really do everything and anything and go over and beyond providing full-service financial and tax services to small businesses, to corporate clients all around the country, not just North Georgia, but all around the country. So please go to, go to NGTaxSolutions.com to learn more about Debbie and her team and tell her I said hi. All right. So let's get into this conversation about Happiness Power, about how to live a more joyful life. Uh, so according to our guest Robert Gill Jr., author of Happiness Power: How to Unleash Your Power and Live a More Joyful Life, happiness does not depend on what we have but how we feel about what we have. I love that. In his book, he describes the considerable powers that happiness provides all of us and how to achieve them. A frequent radio talk show guest and commentator, He specializes in explaining in plain English the techniques of how you can improve your level of happiness during a time when happiness in the USA is at an all-time low. Now, according to the 2021 World Happiness Report, despite having one of the highest standards of living in the world, the level of happiness among Americans is at its lowest and has been declining for the past 20 years. In his latest book, Happiness Power: How to Unleash Your Power and Lead a More Joyful Life, author Robert Gill reveals the secrets to finding happiness using the most recent scientific studies. He describes the over 50 powers that happiness can reward us with. 50. There is a lot of advice from self-help books and motivational speakers on obtaining happiness, and Gill puts together a vast amount of scientific research so it can easily be understood. So thankfully, you do not have to go through all the studies and TED Talks online to find the key to happiness. According to Gill, happiness power is all about the prescription to turn those frowns—

woo-hoo—

into smiles. Welcome, welcome, welcome. How are you?

Fine, Bernadette. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it very much.

Oh, you are very welcome. Now what I find also very fascinating too, and I'm looking for it right now, is you go by an AKA.

How cool is that?

So explain that to everybody.

A number of years ago, I've always been writing, and a number of years ago, a couple of authors who I admire suggested I don't use my name, my real name, when I write. They said, that's because if your book sucks, people will know who really wrote it. So I picked up Robert Gill, and I've been using it ever since.

Oh my God, that is awesome. So your real name is truly Edmund McCormack?

Edmund McCormack, yep.

Okay, and therefore, you know, we're going to call each other, or I'm going to call you Ed, or?

Call me Ed, please.

Call you Ed. All right. I love that. I wish I had done that, actually. That is awesome. All right, so I need a little— I need to go back a little bit, um, because I really want to go, uh, really understand what brought you to this place of wanting to really dive into, um, the power of happiness or happiness power. What brought you to this point?

Well, that was about 2 years ago, just before the COVID quarantines. I read the 2020 World Happiness Report. And I was really shocked at the fact that the US was really trailing other countries in happiness. And we were at our lowest level for 19 or 20 years. As a matter of fact, the 2021 Happiness Report is even worse than that. So, my background is in research. I've done consulting all of my life with major corporations, which required me to research. And I thought, well, let me find out why we're so unhappy. And there are thousands of studies, academic studies and research studies on happiness. And starts with Aristotle, who talked about happiness all the way back several thousand years.

Right.

One of the things that I was surprised at is that happiness is the biggest motivator among life forms, from the amoeba to the elephant. We are all searching for how to be, feel better, how to have more fulfillment. Right. This is what the prime motivator is. And many of us, unfortunately, at least according to that report, hadn't made it.

Right.

So in doing the research, the studies, I found to my amazement all the benefits that happiness gives us besides just feeling good and feeling fulfilled.

Right.

For example, it plays an important part in our health. Those that are happier have lower blood pressure, better cardiovascular health, better recovery from sickness, lower feelings of pain. And it's, it's an extraordinary way to feel good about yourself. But even more important, studies have shown that happy people are more successful people. They earn more money, they're promoted more frequently, they are more— provide more leadership incentives to other people, and so on.

Right.

So I listed about 50, but there's many more benefits. To being happy, but 50 where I grouped them together into health, well-being, the social benefits. A happier person has more friends. In turn, more friends make you happier. It's just the self-feedback. Right.

Well, and what I really find fascinating about this and the work that you've done is, you know, it should be a kind of a calling card, I guess, for everyone that if, you know, if they are in any way, shape, or form struggling with, you know, reaching their goals and dreams and wanting to find happiness and fulfillment and meaning and purpose, then all they really need to do is focus on finding and doing those things that make them happy. Is that, you know, would that be fair statement?

No, it is not. That's what I found. That was the shocker. The shocker— the book ends with a chapter called "The Surprise Ending." And one would think that doing all these things would make you happy. But happiness is obtained indirectly. And happiness is obtained by giving, giving to others. Not necessarily material things, but your time, volunteerism, charity. Those who are more charitable proved in studies to be happier. Those that show gratitude. The opposite of gratitude is extraordinary that when you think about it, one can say that if you fail to thank people, then you are expecting things from people. And if you're expecting things from people, you are disappointed and less happier. So if you practice gratitude, a small thank you, you think about what life has given you, even the small things. You know, there's a wonderful story. It's an ancient story from the Sufi cult, which really describes happiness to a T. And that is an old man was walking down a dirt road and he ran into a beggar. And this beggar was limping along and held up this bag, ripped and stained, and he said to the man, "These are all my worldly possessions in this miserable putrid bag." The old man looked at him as the beggar turned the other way he snatched the bag from the beggar's hand and ran down the road around the corner and dropped the bag in the middle of the road. And the beggar in the meantime dropped to his knees crying about losing his bag, his only worldly possessions. And he got up and he walked on, and to his amazement, he found the bag in the middle of the road and he screamed with joy, "My bag! My possessions!" And it just proved that those possessions that the beggar had thought about that made him very unhappy now made him very happy because of his change of attitude as to what the possessions were, about his gratitude.

Right.

We thank for the small things in life. And the more we thank, the more we thank, even internally, even silently, the happier we could become over time. Yeah, it's the half empty glass and the half full glass. It's the same glass. It's just our perception of how we look at things. Oh, I love that.

I love that. It's the same glass, but it's just how we look at things. And, and I think what you're also pointing out too is where I was thinking, oh, it's about, you know, an individual and them, you know, kind of pursuing and achieving what they want. It's all external.

It's all the opposite. What happens is, as you gain happiness, those things come to you. There was a wonderful study about promotions in corporations, and they found that it wasn't that the promotion caused happiness. It was the happiness in that particular person that caused the promotion. In many of the instances. So the chicken and the egg was the egg and the chicken philosophy in that particular case.

Yeah, I love that. Wow. You have some great analogies, you know, and promotion being advancement, like an advancement.

Absolutely. Exactly.

Yeah. So help me understand. And maybe you've already expressed it in the gratitude and serving of others and whatnot. But what is your terminology around happiness power? What, you know, how are you seeing happiness power?

Happiness power are those things that you as an individual gain through your gaining of happiness. By gaining of happiness, you gain the power of success, you gain the power of a greater social circle. You gain the power of health. You gain the power of monetary value. And that's very interesting too, because we all hear the old saw that money buys happiness. Two great studies, it showed that to an extent, up to $75,000 money does buy happiness. But once you've reached an income of about $75,000— I have to put a parenthetical aside because with inflation now, it may come a little higher.

So true.

Once you've reached $75,000, that is, you're meeting your needs for food, clothing, and shelter and those things for entertainment. After that, greater values of money don't matter as much. Sure, they matter, but they don't matter as much when you gain. So it's the feeling within yourself, it's the fulfillment within yourself. And that one of the great needs that you need to fulfill to be happy is your power of purpose. What is your purpose in life? And when you find that, you will definitely find happiness.

Right.

Now, does your book, Happiness Power: How to Unleash Your Power and Lead a More Joyful Life, does it touch on— because many people will say to me, how do I find my purpose? Like, you know, I feel like I'm just like kind of, you know, like a feather in the wind. How do I kind of find my purpose?

Yes, we talk about— there's a whole chapter in there about Finding the purpose. But one of the things I wanted to mention that I thought will absolutely show me up as a quirky, eccentric old guy is the fact about 8 years ago, I walked into my doctor's office and there were 6 or 7 people sitting there. None of them noticed me because they were all head bent toward their cell phone. And I thought, my God, I could rob the place. No one would recognize me. And that gave me the thought that, you know, my cell phone controls me because I'm doing exactly what these people do. Yeah, I don't control the cell phone, it controls me.

Right.

So when I left the doctor's office, I gave my cell phone to a stranger and I haven't had a cell phone ever since. Now I run, I run two companies. I run a company that makes art supplies and I run a company that does food specialties. No way! You don't have a cell phone? Well, listen, I grew up with a wall phone on the kitchen. So I recognize that when the phone rang at night, you know, you'd get out of bed and come downstairs for the phone, or you didn't answer the phone at all, right? Now, 64% of people who have cell phones sleep with them.

Yeah.

Yeah. And 65% check their phones 160 times a day. What are you doing with that time?

Yeah.

So what I was trying to get away from as part of the happiness push is to get away from things that control us.

Right.

To be free, to be aware. You're walking outside. To look at the trees, for heaven's sakes. And so, and I know it's clichéd and to talk about that, but it certainly makes me happy to look at what's going on around me and not seeing people walking down the street with their head buried in the cell phone.

Yeah. So let me ask you, 'cause that's extremely intriguing because a couple of years, not a couple, well, I guess a couple of years ago now with 2020 in between, I was like stressed going to this exclusive, like not exclusive, but it was, a remote island that had no Wi-Fi, no connectivity to anything. And I was freaking at first. I was like, oh my gosh. And yet when I got there, it was awesome. And I was there for 2 weeks and it was awesome not to be tied, not to be tethered to my phone.

It was awesome. Listen, 35% of the people who are certainly participating in this Survey that was just done 2 years ago said they would rather give up sex than their cell phone. So talk about a compelling media. The cell phone really does control a lot of what we do.

Oh my gosh.

Right now I have an answering service. I have a landline. So if people want to call me, it works fine for me and I'm able to do what I need to do. It took me about a year and a half to get rid of the feeling about the dependency of the cell phone. But once that was gone, it was great.

And how long has it been?

Well, it's been now 7, 7 and a half, almost 8 years since I've used a cell phone.

Wow, good for you.

And wait a second, there's something more to know about this same statistic as to where we're going. That as of this year, a second study has shown More people are texting than talking.

Oh, yes.

So are we losing our ability to talk? I don't know. But when you're in a group— this is part of the happiness— when you have friends, a great social circle, and you're talking person to person among friends, you are filling your mind, your brain with dopamine, which is the happy hormone, which makes you feel good about yourself. So that's another consideration about gaining happiness. It's having a great social circle and doing the things in person, family, friends.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I, you know, and I have to support your comment of just, you know, the, the loss of social skills that, you know, not only the young people who are kind of suffering predominantly from this, but even those in their 30s, 40s, and beyond.

And beyond, that's right. I'm finding that too, right?

Yep.

Now, one of the things that we can say is that has lowered the happiness level, according to the Happiness Report, is our reliance on social technology. Facebook, Twitter. Here's why. If I said to you, "Can I offer your son or daughter a shot of dopamine to make them happier? Could I just give that to them?" What would you say? You would say, "Get out of here. They don't take drugs. Get rid of it." But studies have shown now that every like that is gotten on Facebook gives you a momentarily shot of dopamine, which now is making it much more difficult to give that up. And it's especially hard on people with low self-worth. And those with low self-worth are the youngsters. They're looking to gain that. So that's another issue as to what's happening to our happiness levels in the, in this country.

Well, and I have to, I have to say it's not even the young people because I happen to be just on a forum. I would say it was Monday, and it's a forum about how to do, you know, like online, you know, coaching and training, like, you know, well, we're doing a podcast, but, and so it's all about how to do that. And I would say there had to be a dozen women that were kind of boo-hooing at the fact that they've done these challenges, they've made these posts and no one's like, yeah.

And as a result, the study was showing that people without getting those likes are actually removing their posts because they feel that it's, it's not worth it to be on there. And they're judging themselves and they shouldn't judge themselves that way. You know, they have to build their self-confidence. And that's not a way to build self-confidence using those types of social media.

Right.

Absolutely. I absolutely agree with you. Absolutely agree with you. So What would you say is the formula? Like, what is the formula for happiness if you were to put one?

It's not a secret. It's only the fact that you can't set out to be happy for happiness' sake. You've got to do the things that I mentioned before. You've got to be charitable. You've got to be grateful. You've got to work on yourself and build your self-worth and your confidence up. And you do that by doing small deeds and being successful at them, right? You've got to remember not to let people judge you. Judge yourself, but don't care what people think about you. If you want a different haircut, get a different haircut. Don't care what people are saying about it.

Okay, all right, let's stop there for a second because that is a powerful statement you just made. All right, so in this world of, you know, social media and, and judgment and cancel culture and whatnot, how can someone go about not caring? Because that sounds easy, like just don't care, but do you have any suggestions on, you know, for people that you know, that what they could do to just really not care about what other people think of them.

Yes. Yeah, of course. And it's not easy. Don't get me wrong. We were all born with the requirement of having affirmations by others.

Yeah.

But what we have to learn, and I put a chapter in the book about that methodology, is most people don't realize that others don't care that much about them. You know, and you put much too strenuous thought about how people care about you. They really don't. They honestly don't. It's all in your mind. And once you realize that most of that is in your mind, and you have to practice, don't get me wrong, it's not easy. It's not a snap of the fingers. It takes weeks, if not months, by going through realization, through meditation, through feeling about building up your own sense of self-worth. The more you realize that people don't care that much, or don't— let me say it differently— don't notice you that much. I don't want to say don't care that much. They don't notice you. They're noticing themselves. Not you. And it's only what you're building up in your head that, that ruins your self-worth.

And Ed, that was, that was probably the number one most transformative concept that I learned and helped me to come— because I used to be very close to being narcissistic. I was very, like, concerned about what everyone else thought about me. I really didn't care what anybody, you know, what like I didn't care what their needs and desires were, but I was very, you know, concerned about how they perceived me and what they thought of me, to the point where like it just affected everything that I did. And I heard that statement, um, in a variety of ways, um, and I sat with it for God knows how many weeks and months about like, I don't get that. Like, what do you mean people don't care, you know, don't, you know, don't think about you that often, or don't care, or you know, so forth and so on. And it took me a while for it to seep in that, you know, people are just too preoccupied about their lives to be really thinking about and, and concerned about you, or, or thinking about you, to where you shouldn't be judging yourself. You shouldn't be like, you know, so vain and so in your head. Um, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you mentioned that.

Yeah, well, that's part of that, uh that formula for indirectly seeking happiness. Working on yourself is how you become— and when you feel good about yourself, you're going to be happy. You are going to be really happy when you feel good about yourself. And if you're able to shed the weaknesses of low self-esteem, that really punches up the happiness level to an extreme.

Right, right. And do you have any, you know, do you have a tip or two for how they can kind of look at themselves and their degree of low self-esteem and then what they could do to kind of move away from it?

Well, this sounds metaphysical, and I'm not a metaphysical person, but I did look at the studies here that for practicing meditation and meditation, according to the studies, does work. And if if you use it to the— they looked at those people who meditate 5 minutes a day about that particular subject, about telling yourself how good you are, that you're a kind person, that you're a caring person, you will begin to achieve this self-worth eventually. But you have to do it regularly.

Right, right. It's probably why, like, vision boards and affirmations—

Yes, all of those work. All of those work because it makes you focus on what the issue is. And if you're talking yourself out of it, right, right, right, right, right, right.

And so where do you think is the— where do you think, apart from the— well, I don't want to say that. Where do you think this is all stemming from? Yes, there has been a, you know, an escalation and elevation of social media. You know, and whatnot. But where would you say it really is the underlying cause? Because like you said, you went back, you know, centuries of people writing about happiness.

Well, that's a great, powerful question because it's genetic. To a certain extent. There are people who are born pessimists, and there are people who are born optimists.

Really?

The optimists are much more easily happy than the pessimists. But the academic studies have shown— two great academic studies show that one can change from being a pessimist to becoming an optimist. Maybe not 100% being born that way, but by practicing a better outlook about better problem-solving techniques, you can change from being an opt— from a pessimist to an optimist. That by itself helps you on the road to happiness. So, There are many reasons that we tend to be unhappy, you know, whether it's genetic or whether there's a certain pressure on us. We have to get our taxes done and we don't have the money. That makes us really unhappy. And we have to be realistic. And the other thing is you can't be happy all the time, whether you're an optimist or not. And you have to understand there will be times when you're going to be unhappy. But if you are self-confident and in control of that, you know that this too shall pass.

Right, right. Well, they always say, you know, it's, it's not a matter if you're going to fall, it's a matter of how long you stay down and whether you get back up.

That's right.

Exactly right. But, well, I'm really fascinated by your comment, though, that it's genetic. Is that like literally genetic, like genes? Or is it, or is it because maybe during pregnancy you know, like, you know, babies are affected by what's going on out, you know, externally from the mother's, you know, womb, you know. So is it actually like genetic versus—

well, part, part of it is genetic and part of it is the environment that you grow up and how you, how you're raised by, by the family. But, but the greater power is, is in genetics.

Interesting. Wow, I've never heard that. That's fascinating. That's absolutely fascinating because I would have thought that, you know, every baby's born like very, you know, innocent, very pure, very happy, very in a state—

There's a predisposal. There's a predisposal to— Here's the other thing. Each of us looks at the world in a certain way and we subconsciously feel that everyone looks at the world the same way. That's not true. Everyone has a different take on what the world is, a different interpretation. Well, just think about the progressives versus the conservatives.

I was just thinking that. It's funny. It's funny you should say that. Yeah.

And you really can't, at least you shouldn't, criticize those people's differences because they believe that. That's how they look at the world, and that's how they are interpreting the world.

Right, right, right. And everybody's perception is reality, right? Someone's perception.

Absolutely. That's their reality.

Yeah, yeah. And so it's now— okay, so I'm sure you confront this all the time where someone unhappy— sorry, there's a fly in front of me— where someone is kind of very oblivious that they are unhappy. They're oblivious to the fact that they, you know, seem to be miserable, or, you know, and so how do you, or what suggestions would you have for someone else, if not directly to that person, to get them to kind of open up their eyes and recognize that they're unhappy? Because that's a hard thing for many people to admit.

When you say, oh yeah, of course. And typically, if you don't recognize the problem, you're not going to— you're not going to begin to solve the problem, right? And many of us go around in that state of funk, right? Not attributing it to being happy or unhappy, just being there in life, right?

Right.

I wouldn't advise an outsider to come in and tap somebody on the shoulder and say, hey, you don't look happy, take this book or take this course or whatever. It's— you decide to be happier or to look for happiness based on your own decision. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. But it's so hard for us. I mean, wouldn't you agree? Like, if you saw, like, a loved one and you knew that they were unhappy and you knew that they weren't—

Well, that's different. Yeah. That is different. Right. You wouldn't do it to a stranger. But a loved one, you would certainly try to get them to look at life a little differently and so on. And listen, depression— creeps up on people, and especially clinical depression, that's a real bad thing. Right. And then a third party needs to step in and give counsel to see a doctor or a psychiatrist.

Yeah.

You can help depression.

Right, right, exactly. And so, you know, I'm hearing you suggest that, you know, just seek help if you are feeling as if you're in a state of which you don't want to be there.

Oh, without, without a doubt. I mean, people self-harm themselves if you, if you don't catch them.

Yeah. So, um, all right. So I just love this subject. Happiness power, people. Happiness power. Um, so your book, Happiness Power: How to Unleash Your Power and Lead a More Joyful Life. Just share with us some nuggets that we can expect when everybody goes running for, to get copies of your book.

Oh, you mean they run to Amazon or Barnes Noble?

Exactly, exactly.

Well, I think you're going to be surprised at the powers that I listed. I said that I've listed 50 of them, and some of them are subtle, some of them are much more obvious. That will be a big benefit to you to see that. And really the incentive too, as to why you should improve your happiness. The other part of the book that I— this book really is bifurcated into two. The first part is the powers of the happiness. The second part is, well, you show me the powers, how do I get there?

Nice.

And we show you how to get there. And that's when we give you a chapter on the power of giving, how important giving is, you know, and the power of volunteerism, of charity. And we show you examples of those and why it's so important, especially nowadays as to what's going on in our country, right?

Right, right, right.

The power of physical health that happiness gives you. And I make a list of all of those things that— the indirect successes that you get by being happy, the promotions, the success in— even in housing. Those people who are happiest have the best housings according to the studies. Promotions, earning power, and so on. And then of purpose.

Yeah, yeah, the purpose. I didn't mean to cut you off. Please continue with the— that, that, uh, that comment about purpose. I want to make sure.

Yeah, that's an important issue because as we're young, you know, in, uh, in high school, we don't really have a purpose. But when we see a few high school kids say, I want to be a doctor, watch how powerful that, uh, that, that self-motivation becomes when they know what they want to be, right?

Right.

Or I want to become— go to Africa and help the people there. A great power of purpose. Yeah. Many religions teach a power of purpose of going around, even knocking on doors to do it. That's a power of purpose.

Right, right.

Happy.

Well, I would always say to folks, I mean, we all— we have this one life to live and it goes really, really, really fast, you know. Do you want to kind of wake up each morning and just kind of go out into it like a robot and not really pay attention as to why you're here and for what purpose? Or do you really want to spend that time seeking your purpose? Wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you agree?

Oh, of course. Of course. You know, I turn 80 in a couple of months. Yippee! Life has gone by so rapidly, and it only goes by faster each year. Yeah. And so the older you are, the faster it goes by. So I say to everybody who should be out there, look for your happiness. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to know that you can find it. But in finding your happiness, you are giving happiness to all those people that surround you.

Right, right. Yes, it's almost like, you know, when you're on an airplane, right? They say to put the mask on yourself first before other people.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah. But at the same time, I keep going back to this idea that, you know, I keep going back to this idea that you know, apart from someone not— someone recognizing, or maybe not recognizing, that they're unhappy and that they should do something about it. But then there's the people that know that they are unhappy, but then they start like saying, well, I don't have the money to do it, or I don't have this to do it, or I don't have a, you know, kind of a, uh, someone in my life to help me. So they start making a lot of excuses for why they're they're in the place that they're in and they're unhappy. What would you say to them?

I would say that, well, going over the excuses doesn't cost any money to be happier. It doesn't cost any money to volunteer at the school lunch or whatever appeals to you. Yeah, it doesn't cost any. And just that Action alone, just that simple little action alone will gain you so much traction in the happiness department. You'll gain a new circle of friends because you're volunteering around those circle of friends. You'll get feedback from the people that you're serving, which are compliments. And those are the likes that you should get, not the likes on Facebook, you see? Just that little simple start will get you going. Now, yes, I grant you, I know many, many people who use that excuse that they don't have time, or they don't believe this, or they don't believe that. It's not for everybody, Bernadette. It certainly isn't. But those people who want it, there's a whole formula out there. And it's not anything that is unique or brand new. It's always been out there. I just put it together from all of these studies that that were there to show the data behind it to make it more convincing.

Right, right. Yes, everybody, I mean, he found 50 powers, 50 happiness powers. Just think if you only took like 1 or 2 or 3 of those, but you want to understand what all 50 of them are. So be sure to look up Happiness Power: How to Unleash Your Power and Lead a More Joyful Life. And again, like you said, Amazon, Barnes Noble. You can even go to his website, robertgilljr.com, and definitely get the book and just consider, you know, how— you know, what kind of degree of happiness is sitting right around the corner for you by just, you know, considering one or more of these 50 happiness powers that he offers up to you. That's awesome.

Awesome. Awesome.

All right. Any last tips for us?

Oh, yes, I'm just finishing up the draft of my next book, Shyness Power.

Shyness?

Yes, because up until now, shyness was thought to be a demeaning trait. And I am showing in the book that it is far from that, that there are many leaders in this world who are shy and who are successful. It follows along the same lines as My Happiness Power does, the same type of research that I did.

Yeah, very, very cool.

That'll be out in about 3 months.

Okay, well, you might have to come back. You might.

I look forward to it.

Yeah, you might have to come back and have a conversation in regards to that. But I have a quick question in regards to that.

Sure.

Is it— is shyness and being an introvert, is that one of the—

it's different.

Okay, all right, different. Okay, cool. The Power of— or, or Shyness Power. Shyness. But right now, everyone, I want you to run to Amazon, I want you to run to, uh, Barnes Noble, I want you to go to robertgilljr.com, and I want you to learn all about him, AKA Ed. And I want you to, uh, you know, get a copy of that book, not only for yourself either Be sure that you're giving it to other members of your family, maybe even your team members or your circle of friends. We all want to be happy. So, you know, let's lift each other up. And, you know, his 50 powers within his book, Happiness Power, is the way to— I think is the way to do it. So thank you so much. Very much, Ed.

Thank you, too.

Yeah, this is great. Yeah, so everyone, thank you very much. Be sure again, one last time, reach out to Ed and check out his book. And then tune right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. Bye-bye, Ed.

Bye, thanks so much.

You're very welcome. We'll talk with you soon, everybody.