I think most understand the idea of the fulcrum and the lever, but for refresher's sake...
Take a seesaw for a simple example. The fulcrum is the point at which the see saw changes direction- typically in the middle. The lever is the board- the 'mover'. If you have one person on each end at similar weights then the seesaw can be moved up and down relatively effortlessly. If one party were Dave Tate (299.9#) and the other Brandon Smitley (140#), Dave would be in control only letting Brandon's legs touch the ground when he decided to jump off and grab a 12,000 calorie snack. Is there a scenario where Brandon could be in control? Surely. Move the fulcrum closer to Dave, effectively lengthening Brandon's lever. If you move it within a foot or so of Dave, Brandon could easily move Dave up and down, not letting him get his snack and effectively getting kicked off the team.
Anddddd so what does this have to do with my happiness let alone yours?
"...while we of course can't change reality through sheer force of will alone, we can use our brain to change how we process the world, and that in turn changes [our lever]. Happiness is not about lying to ourselves, or turning a blind eye to the negative, but about adjusting our brain so that we see the ways to rise above our circumstances..."
"In other words, by shifting this point around which energy is applied, we can effectively turn the seesaw from a balancing scale to a powerful lever."
Remember 'happiness' is relative. It's whatever your cup of tea is. Nobody's opinion matters and your in charge of making yourself happy. How? Well the power to change your level of happiness is based on (1) the length of your lever meaning HOW MUCH POWER YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE and (2) the position of the fulcrum meaning THE MINDSET WITH WHICH YOU APPROACH YOUR HAPPINESS.
Still skeptical? So were people when Einstein proposed his Theory of Relativity. Listen up meatheads...second science lesson for today. Einstein's Theory of Relativity states that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers and the speed of light within a vacuum is the same no matter what speed the observer is traveling. This is where 'space-time' was born- events that occur at the same time for one observer could change for another observer.
"...take two people, one standing still and the other traveling close to the speed of light. Common sense might tell you that both will age at the same rate, but in fact, the person remaining still ages faster because time dilates with motion, relative from the stationary observer. In other words, time, once thought to be fixed and immutable, is actually relative to motion. According to Einstein, everything from length to distance to time is relative."
I told you that to tell you this- happiness is relative also. And sometimes things that you assume are fixed, are not in the least bit fixed, but usually require a change in perspective, or in Einstein's case a change in speed.
The mind is a powerful SOB. Like an Ed Coan or Steve Goggins type of beast. And it runs your body like an ex-wife runs your bank account. Here's a great example:
Everyone has heard of the placebo effect. Person A takes a new drug, Person B takes a sugar pill. Both cure whatever A and B's ailment was.
"Then there's what might be thought of as the reverse placebo effect, which is in many ways even more fascinating....Japanese researchers blindfolded a group of students and told them their right arms were being rubbed with a poison ivy plant. Afterward, all 13 students' arms reacted with the classic symptoms of poison ivy...Not Surprising...until you find out that the plant used for the study wasn't poison ivy at all, just a harmless shrub. The student's beliefs were actually strong enough to create the biological effects of poison ivy, even though no such plant had touched them."
And you think you can't find a way to be happy? Cmon Man!
A couple examples of changing the lever and fulcrum:
For anyone working in corporate America you can relate to the multiple meaningless meetings you must sit through on a daily basis. Achor suggests coming up with three things to learn from the meeting, priming you for a more positive experience. They don't even have to involve the meeting topic. It could be something as simple as observing the speaker and taking mental notes on things they did well or not so well, or analyzing their power point and thinking how you would have done it differently. Not that this will make you happy, but you will at least gain something from the meeting and if you like to improve yourself as a person, you will feel better after the meeting no matter how pointless it was.
Achor explains that he typically reads for pleasure, but when a deadline was approaching and he was forced to read, he admittedly started dreading it. Reading turned into work for him. What did he do? He changed his language when talking about his plans for the day. Instead of 'I have to finish up this reading' it was 'I get to read this book to better my manuscript' or he would state something interesting or something he learned from the book that sparked his interest. Sounds dumb, but language is powerful. Do you say 'I HAVE to train today' or 'I'm benching today!'
I'll leave you with this, as it relates to powerlifting and breaking plateaus and barriers:
"Imagine, for example, running shoes that say: 'Do not attempt to run a sub-four minute mile-injuries could result."
Now I'm not a fan of running but the sub four minute mile was thought to be unachievable until some crazy bastard did it. Then all of a sudden 2, 3, 4, 5...10 people did it. Why? By chance? Or was it because they saw it could be done and started to believe in themselves?
Shortened horizons are a problem for personal growth an for society in general. They are illusionary boundaries that wall us into mediocrity. If someone says you can't, it's only because they won't. Do I think I can squat 1000lbs raw- yeah, I think so. I can tell you that I'm not willing to do what it takes to get there. Will I squat 900lbs raw? Yes. That's an artificial barrier I've set for myself but it's also being honest with myself. Will I ever try to hit that 1000lb mark? Maybe. I'll never say never. Just some perspective.