Taking a Stand for the American Dream

Since starting the American Dream Project I have been an active proponent of the strong values of our founders establishing a society that promoted the greatest happiness for its citizens.  This is happiness based on integrating the values of self-reliance and a shared civic concern for the common good.  As a nation we seem scared.  Our jobs have disappeared, our education and health care systems are broken and we owe nearly a trillion dollars to China.  Meanwhile we swim in a torrent of special interests that use the language “personal independence,” “maximum material success” and “sacredness of property rights” to marginalize the values of social responsibility, sustainable consumption and the sacredness of human rights.  It is frustrating that when we attempt to solve our problems using wisdom, creativity and higher values the debate degrades to a war of special interests trying to rig the future to their benefit.  The only counterbalance to their self-aggrandizement is citizen resolve to reach for new solutions.  Solutions that honor all our legitimate values but ensure fairness to all.

This is difficult.

That’s because we believe that what we know is reality.  But reality is a tricky beast.  The problem is that reality has at least two dimensions.  The facts of a situation represent the content of reality while the meaning of those facts is the context.    Our sense of meaning is driven by our values.  And for our values to be useful in making decisions they must be held in hierarchy.  Simply put, some values are more important than other values.  Values tell us what to do with facts.  That’s why it’s so important not to let others define our values or confuse us as to what’s most important.  Because, if we let them, they will create a closed bubble for us.  And in the bubble of their emotional logic their conclusions will make total sense.  Soon we’ll be interpreting all facts through the false reasoning of the bubble like clones in a frightened world.  This is not just a theory.  People who call President Obama a Nazi or a socialist and people who label conservatives as hillbillies and hate-mongers make the same error.  They are trying to recruit followers through fear.  This is very dangerous.  It’s what happened when Hitler hypnotized Germany.

When the courageous Christian pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was struggling to find ways to rid his beloved Germany of Hitler, he wrote a series of essays that point out the folly of being seduced by those who appeal to our fear and pride, and pointed out that followers become spellbound by slogans and repeated assertions that gradually become “facts” to morally passive followers.  As simplistic slogans are spread by an over-active media, a moral flu has the power to inflict a whole society. When our prejudices are enthroned in a twisted emotional logic that our self-interest is the premier virtue, facts and evidence that contradict our opinions are simply disbelieved and dismissed.  As a successful business owner recently said to me, “I know what I believe is true, so why should I listen to anything that would make me question my convictions?”  Why, indeed.

What Bonhoeffer, who was executed by Nazis three weeks before Hitler’s suicide in 1945, pleads for is for us to “take a stand.”  His call is to stand for love.  He called on Christians to save Jews because the great work of moral humans is to bring relief to all who suffer. He challenges us to consider “the outcasts, the suspects, the powerless, the oppressed…with new eyes of generosity, humanity, justice and mercy”.

In my view the greatest act of humanity is to relieve today’s suffering and build self-reliance so that all people can lift themselves to a decent, hope-filled life.  My work with the Grameen Foundation, who empower the poorest of the world’s poor to lift themselves by providing access to microloans so they can become self-sustaining entrepreneurs, convinces me that the vast majority of humanity has the will, talent and ingenuity to live a responsible life.  They just need the tools to get started.

To return to the beginning, I am saddened that demagogues in our nation can rally millions with fear-based messages with the primal message, “Every man for himself.”  I also worry that public spending that weakens our self-reliance and creates institutional dependencies is old failure path. The people I most respect are those who hold strong beliefs, recognize that evil is real, exercise timeless values and continue to have an open mind.  Above all, they refuse to be driven by fear, pride or intolerance.

For me there is a higher center that calls for civic engagement in the common good, the restraint of greed, and the promotion of self-reliance.  It is time to take a stand.   A time to stand for our highest values.  This is not time for fear and divisiveness.  It’s time for creative idealism and a fiercely open mind.  These issues are great questions of our day.  (For a view on my suggestion on healthcare that attempts to blend personal responsibility with citizen lead social responsibility, see my other posts: Outraged at the Politics of Healthcare and Will Marre’s Radical Solution to Health Care.)

So what do you think?  Am I missing the point?  What do you believe are the answers to our challenges?

The Real Pursuit of Happiness

Have you heard the news?  It was reported recently that marriage is working again (“Is Secularism Saving Marriage?” USA Today).  Maybe better than ever.  The divorce rate is down to 36%.  Divorce is tragic, but the often-quoted rate of 50% of marriages failing is now history.  Of course what everyone wants is to know why.

The truth is we don’t really know.  But it’s not just because we can’t afford divorce.  In fact, some social researchers have some encouraging ideas based on trends of timing, commitment and counseling.  One cause of stronger marriage bonds may be related to the fact that couples are tying the knot at older ages.  The average age for first marriages is over 27 for men and hovers close to 25 for women.  It turns out the older a person is the more likely they will marry someone they have much in common with.  Important things like values, goals, religious beliefs, attitudes about raising children and spending money.  It’s also more likely they’ll share hobbies and recreational interests.  All these things in common create a platform of shared positive experiences and less value and lifestyle conflict.  On the other hand, people who marry young tend to be more attracted to their opposite.  A sort of odd-couple fascination with the neat attracted to the messy, the responsible saver is dreamy over the spontaneous spender…you get the idea.

And other forces also seem to be at work.  When I was recently speaking on colleges and alumni groups for the American Dream Project, our research revealed that one of the things Gen Y age (18-32) Americans most wanted to avoid was divorce.  This is because so many of them were the victims of their Boomer parents’ domestic wars and family split-ups.  Many divorcing boomers said to themselves, “The kids will be fine.  It’s better they don’t hear all the fighting.”  Well kids definitely wish their parents didn’t fight, but for millions the trauma of divorce didn’t leave them feeling fine.  Far from it.  So these same children are more committed to marriage than their parents were.  We think this is because young couples seek counseling far sooner when things get rough than their parents did.  Young Americans also say they value relationships, friendship, and social intimacy more than money, toys or even exotic experiences.  And as one researcher said, we all seem to be getting better at being married.  Wow, that is certainly good new in a society whose media is obsessed with conflict and bizarre personal behavior.

The positive embrace of marriage is maybe just the beginning.  In our American Dream Project research we found both Gen Yers and Boomers agree that genuine happiness and positive relationships go together.  Humans are emotionally wired to connect with one another.  We are intensely social beings who long to love and be loved.  In almost all end-of-life research the dying report that relationships, marriage, family and friendships are the greatest sources of life happiness.  Maybe more of us are waking up to the fact that investing in deep, mutually supportive relationships has life’s biggest pay-off.

But many of us are not great at friendship or choosing friends.  In my book (Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner) I write about research that says friends fall into two groups.

Level One friends are superficial, the drinking buddy kind of friend. These friendships are driven by you-scratch-my-back and I’ll-scratch-yours.  We’re friends because we get some extrinsic benefit like companionship or favors.

Level Two relationships are based on intrinsic respect. These friendships are based on mutual respect, genuine compassion and caring.  These kinds of relationships affirm our higher selves, our noble aspirations, and our virtues.  These kinds of friends (or spouses) make us feel enthusiastic about life, optimistic about the future and are a source of resilience in tough times.  Mainly these kinds of friends are personal advocates, and who among us doesn’t need that?

Returning to marriage, it’s Level Two friendship that makes marriages great.  When we fall in love it’s passion first.  Passion ignites a volatile pool of brain chemicals.  But as the fire burns lower, friendship becomes most important.  Friendship that is affirming, compassionate and drenched in mutual advocacy.  Wonderfully, it’s friendship that becomes the pilot light of constantly renewable passion igniting the flames of intellectual, emotional and physical intimacy.  All the best of what it means to be human.

So what’s the greatest thing we can do? Be the best friend we can be to the people we love the most.  Look for ways to be a genuine advocate.  As the “Little Prince” said, enthusiastically “waste time” with those you love.  Often it’s in this wasted time that the most genuine love is experienced.  Take a vacation from the troubles of our world and be fully present today with someone who values you.  Call that person you’ve been meaning to call.

So, what’s your experience?  Have you been blessed by genuine loving friendship?  Tell us how.  This is the real “pursuit of happiness.”

If you would enjoyed this post, you might like to visit my older post, What is Life?

———————————–

Save the World and Still be Home for Dinner

• What if we could live a pace and enjoy a quality of life that constantly renewed our energy?
• What if all we really wanted in life was to make a positive impact and enjoy our lives?
• What if we understood our own gifts and developed them so we actually made a unique difference?
• What if we could do this no matter what our life circumstances in virtually any job, any time, anywhere?
• What if we didn’t need permission, power or position to do the best thing we can imagine?
• What if we could just start…now?

We can.

Five years ago I founded the American Dream Project to discover what the American Dream is for the 21st century.  I crossed the country giving speeches and hosting town hall meetings to college and alumni clubs, business leaders and community groups.  The Project interviewed and surveyed over 20,000 Americans ages ranging from 8 to 80.  What I discovered was that vast numbers of us are exhausted and drained by the way we work and how we live. What I also found was a shared persistent concern for our future.  We are awakening to the reality that the world needs saving and that it’s up to us to do something.

The bottom line; what nearly all of us really want for our lives is to matter. Our research confirms that today there is a voracious appetite for meaningful work.  At the same time we want to enjoy life, especially our relationships.  We also want to pursue our personal interests and reignite the pilot light of our inner zest.  As one hard working business founder and mother put it,

“I just want to save the world and still be home for dinner.”

What I found on my search for the modern American Dream were many, many people doing exactly that.  They hadn’t quit their jobs; they transformed them.

Of course, no one of us will save the world.  But as one inspired teacher put it,

“When we change our world, the world changes.”

My recent journey into the lives of real people ignited my energy to write a new book, Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner (Capital Books) that’s going to be released September 30.  It has some themes and elements I developed in my first book, Dreams on Fire, which I wrote for the PBS show Reclaiming Your American Dream.   In Save the World I take those themes into the wider arena of creating a world of sustainable abundance.  Sustainable Abundance is the ideal of uniting human ingenuity and moral values to give every human being an opportunity for a decent life.

Even though this is a grand idea, it doesn’t require huge earth-shattering change to bring it about.  It doesn’t require a magic charismatic leader or even the aristocrats of the status quo to respond to a wake-up call.  Rather, I discovered, it is already happening because individuals are changing the way they think, act and communicate.  It is happening everywhere with people of all ages who are making an individual difference that is creating a “tipping point” of positive change.

What I learned from my interviews and experiences is that this positive revolution for sustainable abundance is happening because people whoever they are, wherever they are, are making it happen in their lives, their work and their communities.  Sure, resistance from the voices of the old way of seeing the world only through the lens of greed and self-interest is noisy.  But the tidal wave of change is already drowning their voices through the millions and millions of positive choices we make every day.

We live and work in a time of disruptive transformation.  The convergence of continuous technological breakthroughs, a generational values shift and worldwide entrepreneurialism is radically changing everything.

So how exactly do we participate and accelerate the new future?  That’s the question I address in my book.  There is a common formula people are using to live a life they most value and enjoy.
The book focuses on the idea that we need to “be who we are and do what we came to do.” Here’s how:

1. We all have a Promise to keep. A Promise to live both joyfully and make a difference that only we can make.
2. Do not be afraid. In times like these where we are losing our homes, our jobs or our peace-of-mind, it’s essential that we don’t abandon our Promise because we’re afraid.  Fear will keep us from both happiness and fulfillment.  If we know what our Promise is, we can keep it in any circumstance.  And yes, your Promise matters to all of us.
3. You can bring your life and your work to a higher level right now. By examining the stories of people just like you and me who are living game-changing lives and relishing their relationships we begin to see a formula for breaking through.  By understanding our Design we “see” our calling.  By becoming clear on our soul’s Desire we focus on a unique life-altering passion.  By responding to our noble Drive we bust down doors of opportunity.

This is not trivial.  Or simply inspirational.  I do my best to paint a vivid picture of people who are transforming their careers, personal relationships and individual place in the world. This book tells the stories of how dozens of ordinary people are living the most extraordinary lives.  It reveals the uncommon habits of how these people think, decide and act.  They teach us how we can transform any circumstance into a fulfilling, exciting and contented life. From these stories I lay out the essential steps and ingredients necessary to help us transform our lives by creating a sustainable abundance of all that is truly important in life, both material and spiritual.

I believes the only way to achieve personal sustainable abundance is to help invent it for everyone.  We have two choices.  The first is what happens if we do nothing.  This choice will create a future fundamentally driven by increasing scarcity and competition characterized by economic and military wars and immense suffering.  The second choice is positive adaptation driven by entrepreneurial invention that amplifies our standard of life as we increase human health, human rights and human opportunity.  The second choice is not automatic, but making the right choice during the next 10 years is maybe the most important choice in human history.

By “Save the World,” I ask you to stand up for something that really matters to you.  To make your unique contribution to a sustainable future and add value to the lives of others.  By “Still Be Home for Dinner” I mean our ability to enact these changes in our own way – a way that fulfills our heart and satisfies our soul.

As I hope you can tell, I am deeply motivated by this message.  As loyal advocates of the American Dream Project I wanted to make Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner available to you for free before it is published.  So, if you sign up, we will email you a (short) chapter every day for the next 30 days.

I now have a favor to ask you.  As you know in today’s media circus it’s very difficult to get and sustain anyone’s attention on any message or ideal.  So if you like what you read, it would be very helpful if you would send us a review.  Also send the chapters on to friends and family who you think might benefit.  (If you don’t like what you read please send me an email with your ideas.  I don’t mind being challenged to think in broader, bigger ways.)

And finally, if you have any ideas or opportunities to better promote the book, please let us know.  Believe me when I say I am much more interested in the message than the money I might earn from royalties.  (In fact, I am donating $1 per book to the Grameen Foundation to help end poverty through micro-credit.)  So I am interested in book giveaways, using books as fundraisers for charities or a zillion other ideas you might have.  Most of all, let me know what you think.  I look forward to hearing from you!

SIGN UP FOR THE 30 DAY DOWNLOAD

A Simpler Life is a More Satisfying Life

I was reading an article by Wendy Koch from USA Today titled For Many, A Simpler Life Is Better. It’s about this new movement to limit the number of things you own. In fact, someone in San Diego, a man named Dave Bruno has launched a blog called the 100 Thing Challenge. His whole concept is to try to get people to limit the things they own down to 100 items. That is not that many things, but people that do it seem to feel free and less stressed than deprived. One of the trends in the article is that only half of all consumers say they already have what they need, meaning they don’t need to buy anything. In the American Dream Project I’ve often talked about where you commit for a month not to buy anything other than food or the current necessities that you use every month. Try it for a month, try it for 2 months, try it for 6 months and just see what happens. This is a whole movement called Voluntary Simplicity. Its got a lot of traction because people are finding a simpler, less cluttered life is actually a better more satisfying life. That is a civil lining. If it really takes hold however, our recession will undoubtedly last a little longer, there will be fewer stores and less consumption, but on balance that’s the only thing that’s sustainable.

Independence Day and Our American Dream

I’ve been giving speeches and writing about the American Dream for the past 5 years my quest has been to discover what our dream is for the 21st century. Today I have a powerful conviction that deep down we know we have the solutions to our own confusion. Answers seem to be on the tips of our tongues, like a memory that has just slipped our mind. The answers we seek are already embedded in our spiritual wiring; we are merely fumbling in the dark for the switch to turn the lights on.

Amidst the darkness of the evening news, the never-ending war in the Middle East, the decline of the middle class, the tidal wave of national debt, and the corruption of our institutions, there is another voice calling out. A voice calling for a rebirth of vision. A vision in which the greatest good for each and all is once again the ideal. It’s a new model of governing without the corruption of special interest and financial favors. A new model of sustainable enterprise that aims for the Greatest Total Value for all. A new model of personal action based on understanding our own unique design and our most noble human desires.

This is all more than a dream. It is The Dream. The Dream envisioned by the most inspiring human phrase, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is time to dream again. Will you?

A recent survey reported in the Harvard Business Review reveals that Baby Boomers and Generation Y have a lot in common (July/August 2009, p. 71). This is the first time parents (Boomers age 50+) and their children (Gen Y age 22 to 32) have been in the same work place in large numbers. Both generations are about the same total size, 70-75 million. Generally these are two generations that like each other. About 1/3 of Gen Y children talk to their parents everyday! So now Gen Y and many Boomers battered by the world we created have found common ground.

Here’s what we want! The genuine American Dream. The exhausted refugees of Boomer World and their meaning-hungry children find themselves longing for the same five things.

We want enduring relationships and families that work.

Love, loyalty and intimacy are our greatest needs because that’s what has been missing. It’s time for a re-commitment to commitment. For our children and us.

We want a lifestyle we both value and enjoy.

We want to live in a safe, attractive place we can afford. We want to do things that feed our soul and engage our emotions. We want community, meaning and sanity. For our children and us.

We want a career that embodies our Dream.

Neither a job nor a profession alone is a career. Our whole Dream Life is our career. We want real work with real meaning and real rewards. Over 85 percent of us want our work to make an important contribution to society. We want flexibility, autonomy and to be rewarded for results. We want to make a meaningful contribution, express our talents and follow our interests. For our children and us.

We want growth.

We want the tools to reinvent ourselves as often as we choose to in this constantly changing world. We want to learn whatever we need in order to excel at our priorities. We want affordable, efficient, stimulating education and access to enriching experiences. We want spiritual growth. For our children and us.

We want real leadership.

We demand truth, not spin or hype. We’re bombarded daily by a barrage of exaggeration and outright lies. People we should be trusting shamelessly offer denial, blame and rationalizations to worm out of their own failures. We have become a nation of skeptics because our leaders are less than we need them to be. We want leadership of vision, substance and honesty. In our homes, factories, stores, schools, banks and churches…everywhere.

We are that X factor. Our common values are powerful. Imagine how good our world will be when we live according to these aspirations. This is an exciting time in human history. How you and I act, right here and right now, is crucially important. The counterfeit American Dream invented by mass marketers that reduced our vision to a McMansion, a new car and a platinum credit card is up in flames. Many more of us are focusing on improving more than our material standard of living. It is time to create a standard of life that we are willing to pass on to our children. It is time to stop arguing over trivia and stand for our ideals that will inspire future generations.

In the best possible society, everyone can enjoy their Life and their Liberty and pursue real Happiness. We can literally save the future if we act on our beliefs and change our behavior right now. As we change, our institutions change. When we lead, our leaders will follow. We must take the lead. If we hope to change the world, we must change our world first.

It matters. The American Dream will only be reclaimed one dream at a time. Only when enough of us stand up for our real dreams of a sustainable future will the entire energy of our culture rise up to transform the world. Only our noble vision will save our future. All we have to do is start right where we are. Today.

ADP Work Making the World a Better Place

George is an inspiration to all of us, and an example of fulfilling the American Dream in his work on a daily basis.  He has discovered what his talents and traits are, what to invest his time in, and has become an expert in his field earning top honors rather than just settling on being an average high school teacher.  Thank you George for sharing your story and allowing us to share it with others.

I know you don’t know me, but you are a huge inspiration in my teaching and in my life.

My name is George Herring.  I am an English teacher in Mechanicsville, VA.

Three years ago I was asked to teach 11th grade English. I’m not a teach-by-the-book type. I wanted something vibrant, thought provoking, and relevant to move my class forward.

“The American Dream” is a theme we are required to teach in the class, so my first impulse was to use that as a theme for the year. I researched and researched…finally stumbling onto your site.

I was overwhelmed. It was perfect! Your message was perfect! The class became totally about them…and we only used the books (Grapes of Wrath, Great Gatsby, and A Raisin in the Sun…along with a ton of independent reading) as launch pads into bigger discussions about life. Most American Dream stories are stories of failures…so your positive energy is the perfect balance to the dark tales of failed American life.

You would think…that after seeing your video…it might be too corporate oriented to move these kids…but they are enormously concerned about their future…concerned about making a big choice that they will later regret. The change you speak of is SO IMPORTANT…and THEY GET IT. Not one or two students…all of them walk away with something.

My wife…moved by your words…took the video into her office and presented a series of brown bag lunch discussions with it…it was enormously successful…in weird synchronicity she presented to one of my student’s dads. This girl is in special ed and has some very big emotional disabilities…one of them is that she isn’t really talkative…dad came home and started talking about the American Dream at dinner…imagine his shock when his daughter burst out with equal energy regarding the same message! She knew your name and she could talk about what your presentation meant to her. Incredible!

My wife and I also converted your presentation into a Christian adult Bible study…since most of the change you are suggesting is truly of a religious nature. We spent lots of time pouring through scripture to see if Life, Liberty, and Happiness are evident…they are!! Our class really moved the group…a few told me they are looking at life through a different lens now. We just finished teaching it about three weeks ago, and are being asked to teach it again.

Back to my English class…part of my American Dream unit is for students to seek out someone they respect and interview them…talk with them for about a 1/2 hour…and to talk about things that come out of your presentation. This has brought out some of more touching moments in the class. Just this year a student reluctantly chose her mother…and in the middle of the interview suddenly saw how wrong she had been to resent her mother over the years…and suddenly realized how much she loved her mother…and this girl broke down in tears said it was a moment that brought her family back together. I could really go on and on…it’s just that committing to your message…and pushing students to see themselves…it has reaped rewards that go wayyyyyyy beyond the requirements of 11th grade English.

I was picked as Teacher of the Year for my school this year…in no small part because of your program.

I am amazed Facebook has given me an opportunity to reach out to you…I really never thought I would have the chance in my life…and let you know how much I appreciate your passion and vision…and to also let you know how much your work has made this world a better place.

Thanks for reading, George Herring.

The American Dream - Right Here, Right Now

I spend a lot of time talking to people about their dream life.  At the American Dream Project we’ve had nearly 20,000 people from teenagers to grandmothers take the Dream Life Assessment. Our research confirms two vivid drivers of our real dream life.  When I say real, I mean the real life we most deeply desire.  It turns out what we really want is not the life depicted as most desired by a hyper consumptive economy and our muscle bound media.  The answers are work and love.  Today we’ll talk about work.  (I’ll address love in a later blog.)

Meaningful Work - The American Dream

It seems one critical element of our most desired life is to be engaged in meaningful work.  Work that expresses our values.  This doesn’t have to be a particular type of work.  Whether we are working on the invention of perpetual energy or the final cure for cancer or whether we are a food server in a local diner, we can gain deep satisfaction as long as we can express our own flair and our own values.  The food server who looks his or her patrons in the eye and offers a cheerful hello or a reassuring smile feels satisfaction from bringing moments of kind attention to someone.  An office or factory worker that embraces their colleagues as both teammates and whole people with whole lives also tends to feel their work is worthwhile.

The most satisfied are those whose work is a great fit with their design—their traits and their talents.  Our traits, like curiosity or an appreciation for beauty (for a revealing assessment of your traits click here) are a source of seemingly endless energy.  Whenever we can freely express who we authentically are we seem to bust out of dull routines and throw off the shackles of drudgery.  But the real rocket fuel of our work life is the pure joy of mastery.  The biggest mistake we make is to think that failure defines the limits of our talent.  Failure is the beginning of new learning if we choose to make it so.  Internal demands for perfection create bitterness but the healthy ongoing quest for progress creates an internal positive energy to pursue unique excellence.

Recent research from Stanford professor Carol Dweck points out that most of us plateau our abilities after 50 hours of learning.  At that point we accept the false notion that this is about as good as we’re going to get.  So whether we’re learning to play golf, master power point or speak in public we tend to believe that after 50 hours of investment we’ve found the limit of our talent.  It’s just not true.  The main difference between the good and great is a continued investment in learning with eager enthusiasm.  Nearly all the people whose talents we most admire are those who have studied the most, practiced more, performed the most experiments or played the game more.  Just consider Thomas Edison or Tiger Woods.  Their genius was released by unrelenting, joyous effort.  Of course it’s not just the quantity of effort; it’s the quality of effort that matters.  Eager learners are closely paying attention to what works and what doesn’t.  They over invest in the things that bring the best results and eliminate wasted time.

So why is this so important today?  It’s because the world has changed.  Permanently.  The economic changes that have thrust themselves on us like a volcano of molten lava have burned the work landscape forever.  The world has little economic need for generic work.  It’s also true that pursuing work in a business-as-usual way brings little excitement or enthusiasm to our lives.  So if we don’t do something different the world loses our gift and we are bored as hell.  As humans we seem to be built for learning, self-expression, individuality and growth.  The old bureaucracies that for 150 years tried to force us to conform to their demand for cookie-cutter “competencies” are dying faster than the dinosaurs.  The best places to work no longer try to “domesticate” their employees.  The need for creativity and commitment is just too great.

The tragic irony of our day is that so many of us are out of work, underemployed or misemployed.  The world urgently needs our best efforts right now.  Our world’s future is at more risk today than perhaps any day.  There is so much to be done to recreate human life for a sustainable, collaborative future rather than a self-destructive, competitive one.

So what does the world need?  You.  Fully turned on.  Volume on high.  Doing what you are designed to do right here, right now.  If this sounds like a pep talk, it is.  American colonists didn’t risk their lives to come to America to get a job as much as they came to create a whole new life.  Today no one is going to give us a job.  We have to create our work, our own value and leave our own mark.  It doesn’t matter who signs our paycheck; we are all self-employed.  Our research shows those Americans who really understand this and strive to live it are the happiest.

Will Marre
Founder, American Dream Project

So how are you doing?  What advice do you have to help us take charge of our work lives?

The American Dream and the Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness is the third pillar of the American Dream.  It’s the payoff for a secure Life and the benefits of Liberty.   Until recently, the “pursuit of happiness” sounded a little airy-fairy.  A little “let’s hold hands and sing from sea to shining sea.”

That’s because the idea of happiness has always been subjective.  It has meant different things to different people.  No more.  The past twenty years have produced mountains of worldwide research on human happiness.  Over 500 studies in the past five years alone.  We have also conducted our own research at American Dream Project. Now we actually know what happiness is and what produces it.  Understanding happiness is one of the great breakthroughs of the last decade.

Happiness is measurable, observable, and verifiable.  Through brain scans we now know that feelings of wellbeing occur when our left frontal lobes, found above our left eye, are stimulated  (Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard When we are anxious or unhappy, our right frontal lobes have their lights on and we are mentally “pacing our cage.”

Happiness is a persistent feeling of wellbeing, despite the challenges and the ups and downs.  Happy people remain generally content and optimistic.  Happiness also requires an absence of anxiety, stress and depression.

We also know that personal happiness has two drivers: inner and outer.  The most powerful is our own inner landscape.  How we think, approach problems, and bounce back from troubles.  But we don’t live in bubbles, so we are greatly affected by the outer “weather” as well.  Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison had it right; society and government have a big impact on how we pursue happiness.  It turns out the societies that have the greatest equality of access to health care, education, and economic opportunities are the happiest.

But, that’s not all.  Societies that have sticky social glue, meaning high family solidarity, low divorce rates, and broad membership in social and civic groups tend to be much happier. Belief in God, participation in religious organizations, and high optimism are also strongly tied to happiness  (Authentic Happiness and Martin Seligman).

The research comes at just the right time because, as a nation, with all our advantages, wealth, technology and power, we seem to stink at the Happiness game.  We’re not even in the top 20 on the first ever World Map of Happiness.

It turns out two of the greatest causes of unhappiness are divorce and job loss.  We are world class at that.  We’ve come to expect regular turnover in our jobs and marriages.  In fact, we now lead the world in those categories. We’ve been led to believe “creative destruction” is a good thing.  Evidently we’ve gotten a little carried away.  Trust, the measure of how much we can count on each other to keep commitments, is half of what it was in 1950. We don’t trust our leaders, our bosses, our government, our schools, our religions, our neighbors, our spouses, our kids, our working colleagues, or the evening news.  When trust in society is shot, social friction slows everything down, makes everything cost more and puts us on guard.  Distrust is the dance music for unrelenting stress.

We’ve been lulled into measuring happiness with a dollar symbol.  The quality of our society is now equated with the activity of our economy.  Our national policy makers worship at the altar of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP); our nation’s health is determined by dividing the total amount paid for all goods and services by the number of citizens.

As an indicator, though, the GDP is both amoral and illogical.  All expenditures are counted as good.  So all the costs of lawsuits, divorces, pollution and disaster clean up, car wrecks, crime, prisons, cigarettes, and even the price rise in health care, college tuition and gasoline add to our GDP.  Does that make any sense to you?  Or is the Gross Domestic Product as Robert F. Kennedy challanged just gross?

According to economists, our standard of living may be rising on paper, but our real standard of life is falling.  When we account for the true economic costs of environmental destruction, urban sprawl, depletion of resources, crime, poverty, illness and education failure, we find our per capita standard of living is declining.  That’s why we somehow feel poorer and more vulnerable even though our house prices have risen and we can buy SUVs with zero percent financing.  Our garages are full, but our souls are empty.

So, what’s the Greatest Thing We Can Do?  Everything.  Happiness is personal at its core.  So in spite of our stress-crazed society, we can all make individual choices that matter.  And these choices, our choices, will change the world.

McCain…Obama…What debate?

As I watched the Obama, McCain debate Wednesday night it slowly hit me.  It was like a dimmer switch that someone had turned up bright.  Either neither candidate fully comprehends what the root causes of our problems are or they are not letting on they do.  I don’t think I am the only one saying,

“Come on, come on, you’ve got to have better ideas than this.”

My current feeling is this.  No matter what McCain says about being different than Bush, he’s still a Republican.  His cabinet will be mostly Republican and his approach to solving our problems will be Republican.  The Republicans approach is low regulation, no trust in government, and high trust in business.  They seem to believe that big business creates jobs, which it hasn’t for 30 years, and the best government is one they outsourced to private contractors.  McCain’s approach to health care is shocking.  It is guaranteed to transfer health costs from business to individuals and lead to tens of more millions being under-insured.  It will actually penalize business for providing insurance by taxing it.  It seems the exact opposite is what’s needed which is exactly what George Bush has been doing for eight grinding years.  Obama’s plan is like most of his plans, half-baked.  It’s a little of this and a little of that.  In Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope the idea is that government policy is usually like sausage making, meaning to get anything done a leader has to give everyone a little of what they want.  But now is not the time for sausage making.

In a true crisis a leader must make enough people see that compromise will not lead us to the top of the mountain.  In fact a crisis is where we don’t want compromise.  We want the very best solutions.  Solutions that get at the root cause of things.  To bring about change we need wise leaders who will stand for real solutions and enroll a super majority of us in support.  Abraham Lincoln was such a leader.  He was the master of timing.  He knew the moment when he could emancipate the slaves and retain the support of the majority.  But he had the courage to do it and the ability to inspire America to do what was necessary.  In the 1960’s we had to face the fact that the debate between property rights and human rights was over.  Finally we were going to promote a society that would no longer tolerate legalized racism.  No more separate swimming pools, bathroom, restaurants or schools.  Today is that day.

A few thoughts.

1. We need a comprehensive health care solution.  One that deals with both cost and access.  McCains plan would tax businesses for providing health care.  Go figure?  Obama’s plan is a little of this and a little of that.  We can’t fix the current systems.  It must be radically re-invented.  It may not be perfect, but it could certainly be much better.  First, everyone should have access to competent health care in this country.  That debate needs to end.  We need to increase the supply of competent health care givers, especially nurse practitioners and primary care doctors.  We need to eliminate the waste of private health insurance and rationing who gets care.  We need a non-governmental, non-profit system of insurance in which every American is covered.  We need to end the waste of expensive, duplicate services and reward healthy lifestyles with tax incentives.  How much will this cost?  No more than the 18% of our GDP it’s currently costing.  One more thing, Americans should not pay more for medicine sold in America than its priced in any developed nation.  It’s time to quit talking about this and start doing it.  Right now our health care system is as corrupt as Wall Street.  No other country in the world has a private profit-driven health care system because it is subject to corruption.  And we have proved that.
2. We need to re-industrialize.  Americans face a credit crisis in part because we have a personal income crisis.  Our pay stinks.  We need to become a manufacturing nation again like Germany is.  If we create highly automated, productive, flexible plants we can invent and produce zero-waste, recyclable high value products the world needs.  The point is every product in use needs to be reinvented if we are going to have a sustainable future.  We need a trade policy that allows free trade only when environmental laws and employer rights of the countries who want to export to us are on a par with our laws.  Otherwise we are just subsidizing their “dumping” into our market.  The world may be flat but it’s not a level playing field.  Until we make it so, our economy will be reduced to Wal-Mart meets McDonald’s.  When we change that we will create real jobs for real wages because we’ll be creating real value.
3. We need to re-educate Americans for the 21st century.  A recent study revealed 40% of Americans read at a 6th grade level.  30% of high school age kids never graduate.  But here’s the deal.  Not everyone has to go to college.  We completely lost our bearings when we did away with vocational-technical education.  Today this kind of practical education is called STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math.)  There is a huge current need for STEM educated workers in nearly every industry.  Auto technicians, oil field workers, power companies and utilities, healthcare, green energy, and even trained engineers all require STEM training and retraining.  21st century skills doing work that must be performed in person creates higher value and higher pay.  These kinds of technical courses can be completed in one to two years and lead directly to higher paying jobs.  As for college, that needs to be free again. If our nation is re-educated to create sustainable value, we’ll make the things and provide the services the world needs.  Then the majority of Americans may just make enough to buy a reasonable home.

Of course we need to build a renewable energy economy, declare victory in Iraq, eliminate lobbyists, secure our borders, regulate Wall Street, reject the tyranny of consumerism, eat right, exercise, and get eight hours of sleep.  Yes there are lot of things we need. But first we need a healthy, well-educated, productive America.  If we can get that right we can get the rest right.  If we don’t, the rest won’t matter.

What do you think?

Tired but Can’t Sleep

When someone suggested I write a daily diary blog about my quest to change the world’s mind about the direction of our future, I thought it sounded a little weird.  After all, we’re all on a quest and mine is no different in significance than yours.  It’s just mine.  I cannot escape it.  It’s a calling that sometimes has me by the lapels and screams in my face to get moving and other times whispers in my ear not to give up.  So here I am at 4:30 in the morning—can’t sleep.  I just wrote a blog for the American Dream Project about what we might do to avoid an economic catastrophe (financial bailout) besides give the people who brought it to us a trillion dollars.  Does the world seem insane or is it just me?

I am tired for sure, but cannot sleep.  Yesterday my wife and I drove up to L. A. where I gave a 2.5 hour leadership workshop to an executive team that is hungry to do better.  Helping people grow is always a jolt for me.  Then we drove to Palm Springs where I gave a talk to a Society of Human Resource Management executives.  HR executives can play a key role in engaging employees in genuine social responsibility.  It was an interesting afternoon.  It seemed to go over quite well, but I kept getting teared up.  No audience likes to look at an ugly crying face, but I couldn’t help it.  But I hate it when it happens.  Whenever I asked, “Is this the best we can do?” or told a story of a successful single employee who changed the way a company does business by creating value through doing good, people got teary-eyed. And so as soon as I saw that mist form, I’m thinking, “No, don’t you dare lose it you old sentimental windbag.”  So there I was trying to choke through another amazing story of personal purpose and trying to smile through my throat seizing up.  Damn, it’s hard to be a 58 year-old Italian man when people are crying trying not to weep a little too.  But I guess we’re all extra emotional.  We live in rough and tough times.  We’re all looking for more.  Looking to fill the hole in our soul caused by neglecting the hero within.  It seems we’re tired of selling out to chasing cheap success or just paying the bills.  It seems that everywhere I speak people are hungry for more.  Hungry to make their difference.  It would be great if it didn’t make me cry.

Today’s my wedding anniversary.  We’re going to lunch on the beach and then are going to watch the USC football game.  My wife rocks.