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South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2016

Not quite: “Shaq-Fu,” “Waterworld,” and “Catfight,” among others, vie for that dubious honor. Another common assumption was that Warshaw’s galactic misfire single-handedly caused Atari’s demise. Other bombs like “Custer’s Revenge” played a major role, too. At the end of the documentary, the “E.T.” games are unearthed, along with other Atari titles, to the cheers of many in attendance, including a jubilant Warshaw. Living through a publicized failure and working for decades in what he calls the “technological rat race” has put Warshaw in a unique position, enabling him to merge a personal and professional perspective on why many of the clients he sees are so unhappy. He himself has experienced the heights of thinking you’ve created the Next Great Thing and the dismal lows of discovering that you’ve created the Last Great Nothing; as a result, he knows, you may be quickly and brutally cast aside. Once victimized by the difference between Silicon Valley’s promise and its ability to deliver, you become part of the problem and not the solution. A bright future can dim overnight. While he calls Silicon Valley “one of the most interesting human experiments in history,” Warshaw points out that with such a high concentration of intelligent, driven people, not everyone can rise to the top. “The valley brings the best, brightest and most ambitious from around the world to seek their fortune. It’s the place where brilliant, aggressive, leadership people can become just another Joe, and that’s a weird feeling for them,” he says. “The people who have been the top of 64 South Bay Accent SHUTTERSTOCK the heap, the No. 1 leader all of their life, they come here and they’re average. That’s a big comedown.” The pressure to succeed also creates single-focus determination. “If you take any one part of your life and make that the entirety of your life, by definition that’s not balanced,” Warshaw says. “A balanced life has room for work, room for play, room for friends, room for family.” That becomes especially welcome— and missed— when your self-image gets bumped and battered. Finding Balance Sara Hart approaches happiness from a slightly different angle by asking the question, “What is enough?” The former Pfizer human resources executive and executive director of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology headquarters her Hartcom consulting practice in Palo Alto. She helps her clients to become sensitive to “The Sign of Enough”—that is, when they’ve reached a satiation point. Hart, who earned her PhD at Northwestern, points out that once you go past “enough” in your life, you risk falling into an emotional abyss. Success, ardently sought, seems unfulfilling when achieved. What matters is to find a purpose, said philosopher Søren Kierkegaard—something no amount of wealth or achievement by itself can provide. Awareness, says Hart, can take many forms: someone realizing they’ve had enough of a stressful life and material gains, or large companies recognizing that growth by itself is less important than making a positive impact on communities and the planet. Hart believes many in the Bay Area achieve success only to realize that success is hollow. “I’m convinced that our big houses and our incredibly fancier cars and the money that we spend on things and toys are not making us happy,” she says. Not exactly startling news, true, but sometimes clichés hold sway because they’re founded in truth. Taken together, those verities have motivated some of South Bay’s leading human awareness luminaries to draw up a “to-do” list of sorts for those who want to increase their quotient of pleasurable moments during the day. They encourage people to make time for “happiness habits” that will restore balance and significantly raise an individual’s happiness level. Christine Carter, PhD, a sociologist and senior fellow at U.C. Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and author of “Raising Happiness,” points to research showing our genes only account for about half of how we navigate the world emotionally. Our circumstances account for about 10 percent of how we feel. Which leaves about 40 percent to be determined by our own thinking and by behaviors we can control. In plain-speak, we can make choices that will make us happy or unhappy. They center on how we view our circumstances, what activities we engage in, and how we spend our time. Drawing on the research and input from these local experts, we’ve highlighted 10 happiness habits—not meant to be followed sequentially—that anyone can put into practice to start living a happier life right away. Experts recommend starting with any one randomly and building from there. “A balanced life has room for work, room for play, room for friends, room for family. —HOWARD SCOTT WARSHAW


South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2016
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