Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Many years ago when I was

an undergraduate going to school, I applied for a summer job where the pay was really good, but the

work was exhausting. I ended up getting the job and it was a very, very exhausting job.

But what it did for me was it allowed me to save that money.

So the next summer, I was able to go to Europe and travel throughout Europe on a bike and a

Euro pass.

I didn't have much money so I traveled very cheaply,

often sleeping on trains or in train stations, but I had a great time and I learned something.

It was pivotal in my life development, what I learned that summer.

Growing up in the United States, I had been exposed to people working very hard for many, many years and then retiring.

When I got to Europe, I realized that not everyone had that philosophy.

What I saw there was they actually valued their time, their work time, and their free time. So they didn't often work the long

40 hour work week and they would take off often from the get-go six weeks a year, often more

with time. Their philosophy of work was very different than ours, and

it literally changed me. What it did inside of me was say, I need to make sure that whatever

I do, I have time for life, for living.

And because of this belief system, I've had to make choices.

I mean, I saw so many people around me who were heading into the professions working 60, 70, 80 hours a week,

and I knew if I followed in their footpaths, I'd be doing the same.

And I realized that perhaps this isn't the best journey to get on. I think

here in the US, not everyone, but a lot of people get on this path of I'm going to work

really, really hard, save a lot of money, make a lot of money,

...