Brian Gubernick shares six principles for happiness from his mentor Mack Newton, a decorated veteran and coach. Newton's keys include refusing self-pity, acting happy even in hardship, living in the present, cooperating with life rather than dominating it, releasing grudges, and cultivating honor and loyalty.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about the 6 keys to happiness. As taught by my good friend, a friend of the show, Mac Newton. For those that haven't listened to previous episodes when I quoted Mac Newton, Mac is an absolutely amazing man, a mentor to me, a guy who's won World Series rings, Super Bowl rings, taekwondo titles and championships. He's a military vet. I mean, this guy is a real-life Forrest Gump. Most importantly though, he's a coach, he's a mentor, he's a leader, he's an influencer, and when Mac speaks, people listen. And this list today that I'm going to go through is directly from Mac, and it's around the 6 keys to finding happiness. Uh, Mac believes and has stated that most people think that happiness is dependent on external factors. Things like, "I'll be happy when I get married," or "I'll be happy when I get that job," or "I'll be happy when I make that money." And that's just not accurate. It's not external in Max's mind. It's actually internal. He believes that these keys that I'm going to give you here not only will they bring you some, some inner peace and give you or help you get to the happy life that you deserve, but you'll also earn the respect and love of others. You'll also learn a little bit of self-respect and maybe self-love if you honor these 6 keys to happiness. So let's, let's get into them, okay? And they're in a specific order. They're related, they're all interrelated, but Mack presents them in this very specific order. Number 1, the first key to happiness, refuse to pity yourself. Don't make alibis, don't seek to justify certain behaviors so that maybe you can look good in the eyes of others. Face up to responsibilities. So number 1, refuse to pity yourself. Face up to responsibilities. Number 2, be outgoing. In other words, don't retreat within yourself and hide, especially during times of emotional stress. Mack teaches to act as if. Act as if you're happy, even when life's difficult, because the mirror really reflects what's shown in it. So acting as if, acting happy, the idea here is, you know, I know some of you may have trouble with this, but acting happy will change your spirits. But the big thing here is be outgoing and don't retreat. Don't hide, even in the most difficult times. Number 3, kind of along the same lines, number 3 key to happiness: live in the present. And plan for the future. Live in the present and plan for the future. Eliminate this unwholesome preoccupation, as Mac would say, with past failures, past mistakes. Living in the past, we kind of guarantee a forfeiture of our future. So learn from your past, grow from it, but don't live in it. Let it go. Live in the present and plan for the future. Number 4, this one's really easy to say but difficult to actually honor, but Mack would say, "If you want to be happy, you got to cooperate with life. Live in harmony with it. Don't try to dominate it. Don't try to conquer it. Just mesh with your life. Roll with the punches." Another mentor of mine, George Pransky, would say, "Treat your thoughts like helium balloons, where you're holding them in your hand by a string, and these are your thoughts, and just let the string go and let the balloon float away." Don't necessarily run away. Don't hide. Don't do things of that nature. But just be in harmony with life. Just cooperate with it and allow things to flow. Number 5, the number 5 key to happiness: be absent of suspicion and resentment. Maybe another way to say this, stop holding grudges. This was a recent podcast episode we did, I don't know, in the past week or two. No grudges. Grudges undermine the willingness to succeed, and the grudges create perpetual unhappiness. So suspicion, resentment, these things create this perpetual unhappiness. So stop it. Knock it off, would be Mack's advice. Number 6, the final key to happiness, Mac says, and it's really straightforward, cultivate old-fashioned character traits of honor, loyalty, and especially hard work. Cultivate these old-fashioned character traits of honor, loyalty, and hard work. These are Mac Newton's 6 keys to happiness. And if you know anything about Mac, or if you don't, by the way, go look him up. But if you know anything about Mac, You know that when Max, you know, he explains these 6 keys, this isn't something he just came up with randomly one day. This is actually something that he's experienced, he's lived, he's put to the test over decades and decades of trials and tribulations, relationships, business wins, and business failures. He's tested this. So if you want to be happy, aim to honor these 6 keys. I think it's really, really great advice. So the focusing question for you today, as I ran through these 6 keys of happiness, which of them might you be violating right now? Which of them maybe can you change your approach around or can you implement into your world? You know, I said the other day, are you holding some grudges that maybe you need to let go? Are you maybe not living in the present but too focused on the past? Are you fighting with life rather than cooperating with it? Are you retreating rather than being outgoing? Are you pitying yourself? Are you making up excuses or alibis? And lastly, are you, you know, displaying these old-fashioned character traits of honor, loyalty, hard work, or are they missing in your world? So the focusing question: where's there an opportunity for you, and what can you do about that starting today? That's all I have for you today. No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
