Author Interview with "Connecting Happiness and Success" author Ray White

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(M&M Blog)  First, I would like to thank you for writing such a wonderful and helpful book – “Connecting Happiness and Success”.  I really had quite a few “a-ha” moments while reading it.  Who would you say had the most influence on you in regards to research for the subject matter? 

(Ray White)  My employees and team members had the most influence.  I started out only teaching them how to be leaders and how to be successful.  It soon became clear that they were very interested in learning how to be happy as well.  Most of them worked way too many hours and really wanted to be successful.  But they were giving up opportunities for happiness to get there and that was causing them to become disenchanted with their goals and dreams.  Teaching them to focus on happiness instead and have that lead to success was very fulfilling and made me want to share the concepts with others.

(M&M Blog) A thought popped into my head while reading the book.  Technology is a tool that can bring us closer and in contact with more people than ever, but it seems that same technology can also create an emptiness when you are around actual people.  How would you advise people on the best use of technology to keep in contact?

(Ray White)  That is a great point. The challenge is to strike a balance.  You need human contact and positive relationships to be happy.  It is one of the strongest findings in the research.  If you use technology to augment those relationships rather than replace them then you improve your relationships and become happier.  When you replace that contact with technology then you become less happy.   In other words a few good friends that you keep in contact with on Facebook is good.  1000 friends on Facebook and no time for real life personal interaction is bad.   As a side note:  studies show that using Facebook actually makes you less happy because people usually post their best moments.  So you are comparing your average life to their best moments and it doesn’t measure up. 

   (M&M Blog)  What are some of your favorite things to do when you start to feel that you are not quite as happy as you could be?  

(Ray White)  I have a list of about 50 things.  But my go to actions are:

1.       Think about my kids

2.       Think about what I am grateful for

3.       Think about our vacations - past or future.

4.       Think of something good that happened today or yesterday

5.       And of course – use the MyHappiness app.

(M&M Blog)  What was your favorite part of writing this book?  What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome to finish it? 

(Ray White)  I really enjoyed the process of working on happiness and success every day.  It was a great way to start the day and it became a habit.  I still get up every morning and write about or work on something to do with happiness and success.    

(M&M  Blog)   What are the two “happiest and successful” moments of your life so far?   

(Ray White)  Getting married and having kids are at the top.  I have now been married 25 years and have 3 great teenagers.  Publishing the book and hitting #1 on an Amazon best-seller list were recent big events.  But I try to be happy and successful every day.  If I can find one reason to be happy and one action to take that will make me successful each day, then when I look back, I will see a very happy and successful day, year, and life.

 
(M&M Blog)   If you could go back in time and have a discussion with yourself when you were just starting to think about writing this book, what advice would you give yourself? 

(Ray White)  Believe in yourself.   I started with low expectations of one person reading my book and hopefully being helped.  But as I have gone through the process, I have met hundreds of interested and more importantly, interesting people, and thousands of people have listened to my speeches or read my book.  I found people with common beliefs and values and it is great working with all of them. 

(M&M Blog)  You did a fabulous job in the book laying out actions that can be taken by the reader, along with worksheets.  What other resources would you recommend your readers look into that fit the theme and teachings from your book? 

(Ray White) Thanks for your kind words.  We also have the MyHappiness App which can be downloaded on iphone or Android by searching for MyHappiness (one word) in your app store.   You can also visit Myhappiness.io.

We also have tons of information, happiness quotes, videos, etc. on our web site at Connecting Happiness and Success.com.