[Laughs]

Umm...

I think happiness is a pretty complicated concept

that has to do with pleasure on one hand

but has to do with broader meaning, also.

We know that there is a whole spectrum

of positive state that one wants to attain

that is much more nuanced

than the word 'happiness' would imply.

It seems to me that happiness is some blend

of experience of pleasure and the experience

of meaning and fulfillment in life.

And, I think much more of the latter than the former.

For me, staying in my own lane,

not being comparative to others, my peers

that could have more than me or less than me.

That is when I'm the most happy,

when I'm in my own lane.

Happiness is something more long term.

I could sensibly ask you if you're happy with

your day or happy with your life.

Pleasure is short term.

Pleasure is an experience that could last

10 seconds, 20 seconds, a minute.

A sip of wine, it could be hearing a joke,

being hugged, watching your child laugh.

If you want to define happiness in any big picture way

you really want to be focusing more on

what gives life meaning and purpose

than you do on the moment to moment

little jolts of joy you might get.

Happiness to me before I was diagnosed with cancer

a few years ago

meant something very different to me.

Happiness back then was about achieving these big milestones:

graduating from college, getting the right kind of job.

Now, happiness to me is about the mundane

everyday, little things in my life.

We know a lot about the things that are associated

with high life satisfaction.

By far the most important is your relationships with other people.

There's kind of fleeting happiness,

the kinds of little buzzes you get from

eating an awesome ice cream sundae.

But, to me the real happiness,

what I would call joy,

is that deep connection you get with somebody else.

My son racing up to me and throwing his arms around

my neck and his legs around my middle

and he's the koala bear and I'm the tree:

that's happiness.

That's happiness.