Unhappiness is a Habit You Can Learn to Break, With Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin: One question is: how are happiness and habits related? And I’ve been researching
and writing and thinking and talking to people about happiness for years.
Uma pergunta é: como a felicidade e os hábitos estão relacionados? E eu tenho pesquisado e escrito
e pensado e conversado com pessoas sobre a felicidade por anos.
And what I started to notice was that habits play a really important role in happiness. Because a lot
of times when I would talk to people, there was some big happiness challenge in their life that I
realize was actually related to some core habit.
E o que eu comecei a notar foi que os hábitos desempenham um papel realmente importante na
felicidade. Porque muitas vezes, quando eu conversava com as pessoas, havia algum desafio de
felicidade em suas vidas que eu percebia que era na verdade relacionado com algum hábito crucial.
And it wasn’t that they didn’t think or know that if they got more sleep, they’d feel better, or that if
they didn’t spend so much time on the Internet during work, they’d be more productive, or whatever.
E não era que eles não pensavam ou sabiam que se eles dormissem mais eles se sentiriam melhor,
ou que se eles não gastassem tanto tempo na internet durante o trabalho, eles seriam mais
produtivos, ou o que quer que seja.
They had identified the change that they wanted to make, but for some reason they weren’t able to
stick to that change. They weren’t able to make that change happen no matter how much they wanted
to. They could see that there was a happiness gain out there, but they weren’t able to translate it
into action.
Eles tinham identificado a mudança que eles queriam fazer, mas por alguma razão eles não eram
capazes de aderir àquela mudança. Eles não eram capazes de fazer aquela mudança acontecer, não
importa o quanto eles quisessem isso. Eles podiam ver que havia um aumento de felicidade lá fora,
mas eles não conseguiam traduzir isso para a ação.
And that got me very focused on the issue of habit change. So, how is it that we specifically change
a habit so that we can make these desires, these aims that are so pressing in our lives – how can we
translate it into real action, real change in our everyday lives?
E isso me manteve muito focada na questão da mudança de hábito. Então, como é que nós mudamos
especificamente um hábito de modo que nós possamos fazer esses desejos, esses objetivos que são
tão urgentes em nossas vidas – como nós podemos traduzir isso para ação real, mudança real em
nosso dia a dia?
Because the fact is, you know, for most of us there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit. There’s a lot of things
– just part of our ordinary day – things that don’t take a lot of time, energy, or money that if we
could do them, they would make us happier.
Porque o fato é que, para muitos de nós há muitas coisas fáceis (parte fácil). Há várias coisas – que
são parte do nosso dia comum – coisas que não tomam muito tempo, energia, ou dinheiro, que se
nós pudéssemos fazê-las, elas nos fariam mais felizes.
Well we really have to get ourselves to actually follow through. And so that’s where habits come into
play, because habits are the thing that allow you to make those changes and just put them on
automatic pilot. They’re just part of your everyday life and they make you happier.
Bem, nós realmente temos que fazer com que nós de fato façamos isso. E então é aí onde os hábitos
entram no jogo, porque os hábitos são o que permitem que você faça essas mudanças e
simplesmente as coloque em piloto automático. Eles são simplesmente parte da sua vida cotidiana e
eles te fazem mais feliz.
Gretchen Rubin: One question is: how are happiness and habits related? And I’ve been researching
and writing and thinking and talking to people about happiness for years. And what I started to notice
was that habits play a really important role in happiness.

Because a lot of times when I would talk to people, there was some big happiness challenge in their
life that I realize was actually related to some core habit. And it wasn’t that they didn’t think or know
that if they got more sleep, they’d feel better, or that if they didn’t spend so much time on the
Internet during work, they’d be more productive, or whatever.

They had identified the change that they wanted to make, but for some reason they weren’t able to
stick to that change. They weren’t able to make that change happen no matter how much they wanted
to. They could see that there was a happiness gain out there, but they weren’t able to translate it
into action.

And that got me very focused on the issue of habit change. So, how is it that we specifically change
a habit so that we can make these desires, these aims that are so pressing in our lives – how can we
translate it into real action, real change in our everyday lives?

Because the fact is, you know, for most of us there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit. There’s a lot of things
– just part of our ordinary day – things that don’t take a lot of time, energy, or money that if we
could do them, they would make us happier.

Well we really have to get ourselves to actually follow through. And so that’s where habits come into
play, because habits are the thing that allow you to make those changes and just put them on
automatic pilot. They’re just part of your everyday life and they make you happier.