I'm at once you understand that you can take ownership of at least part of your day.

That's when you start to see the world through a lens that I have control, and I can create moments of joy

essentially on demand, and that creates a very optimistic space.

Okay, welcome back, or welcome to The Finding Mastery Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Jurvey,

by trade and training a high-performance psychologist. I'm really excited to welcome Dr. Michael

Rucker, as our guest for today's episode. Mike is an organizational psychologist, a behavioral

scientist, and a charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association.

Now, I've had the pleasure of knowing Mike for about two decades now, and I am so stoked to

introduce him and his work to you. He's currently taken a deep dive into the science of fun.

In January 2023, he'll be publishing his first book called The Fun Habit, how the pursuit of joy

and wonder can change your life. Mike, it is great to have you on. How are you?

I'm doing well. This is really exciting for me. I think we're going to get into it, but you are

part of my origin story, so to be able to kind of see this book come to fruition and be able to explore

some of the topics on your podcast, it means a lot to me, so that we're going to have a good time here.

That's really cool. I think as we share our stories that the origin story will come through,

but before we get to that part of it, can we zoom in on a particular phase in your life?

It was specifically, I want to go back to 2016, and you're coming off two entrepreneur events,

one that had a meaningful exit, which usually is code for like, it did pretty well,

and then the second one, it offered you a strong learning curve, which usually is code for like,

financially, didn't work the way I wanted. That's just a little context setting, and there's

obviously many more details of your life, but can we zoom in into the heart of what you've

shared publicly about being one of the most challenging phases of your life?

...