CHAPTER 23
Solve For Happy
Mo Gawdat was an engineer—the Chief Business Officer at GoogleX, no less. If you could engineer happiness, Mo was the guy to do it. Cliff, always on the lookout for new ideas, stumbled upon an online interview with Mo. It wasn’t long before he was completely hooked. This wasn’t just another self-help guru spouting platitudes—this guy had a formula, a literal equation for happiness. Cliff’s inner nerd was thrilled.
Naturally, Cliff dove headfirst into Mo’s book, Solve for Happy, eager to dissect the equation and uncover the secrets within. And there it was, in black and white:
Happiness ≥ Your perception of events in your life - Your expectations of how life should behave.
“Simple,” Cliff thought, “but not so simple.” Life was never just an equation. But that’s what made this formula so intriguing—it offered a way to simplify the chaos, to break down the complexities of life into something he could work with.
The gist? Happiness is all about managing expectations. If what happens in your life matches or beats your expectations, you’re golden. If not, well, that’s where the trouble starts. The solution? Expect the unexpected. If you can make peace with the fact that life is as predictable as a cat on caffeine, nothing will ever shock you again. Control? That’s a myth. And once you accept that, letting go becomes a whole lot easier.
One concept in particular hit Cliff like a ton of bricks—analyzing his own feelings. Mo pointed out that regret and grief were tied to the past, anxiety and fear to the future. But peace? That was rooted in the present moment. “Live in the moment, be mindful of the now,” Mo urged, “and you’ll sidestep those nasty negative emotions.”
It was powerful stuff, especially considering Mo wasn’t just preaching. He had lived this, using these ideas to claw his way back from the darkest pit imaginable—the loss of his son Ali at 21. It wasn’t just a theoretical exercise; it was real, raw, and heartbreaking. If this could help Mo survive that, Cliff figured, it could help him navigate his own rocky road.
Among the many takeaways from the book, one new habit stood out for Cliff: the gratitude rosary. Cliff had tried practicing gratitude before, with mixed success. It would work for a while, but then life would get in the way, and he’d forget all about it. But Mo’s twist on the practice—using a rosary as a physical reminder—was different. It was practical, simple, and brilliantly effective.
Cliff’s dad happened to have an old rosary lying around, and so, armed with this new tool, Cliff started his experiment. Every time those sneaky negative thoughts tried to muscle in, Cliff would reach for the rosary in his pocket and start counting his blessings. “It’s cliché,” he thought at first, “but heck, it’s working.”
He used it everywhere—while driving, walking, even in his office when the stress started to pile up. And at night, when sleep tried to elude him, the rosary became his secret weapon. He would hold it, run his fingers over the beads, and let his thoughts drift to the things that mattered most—his health, his family, his trio of daughters. He’d end each day by silently thanking God for the gifts in his life, falling asleep with a sense of peace that had been missing for too long.
This gratitude habit became more than just a routine. It was his lifeline, anchoring him to the positive side of life when everything else seemed determined to pull him down. It reminded him, every day, of just how lucky he was.
With this newfound clarity, Cliff started thinking about how to take things even further. Maybe it was time to step away from the daily grind, to reconnect with nature, to find that peace he felt slipping away...
