Thank you for joining us for episode 516 of Live Happy Now.

What if the only thing that was keeping you from reaching your full potential was you?

Today, we're going to find out.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I'm joined by Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman,

a cognitive psychologist, podcast host, professor ofelps, and this week I'm joined by Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive psychologist,

podcast host, professor of psychology at Columbia University, and at the director of the Center for

Human Potential. Dr. Scott's latest book, Rise Above, is all about how to overcome a victim

mindset and empower yourself to realize your full potential. He's here to explain what it means

to have a victim mindset, why it's become so prevalent today, and how letting go of that mindset

will help us live our lives with greater meaning and fulfillment. Let's have a listen.

Dr. Scott, thank you so much for coming on Live Happy Now. Oh, thanks, Paul. That's great to chat with you again.

Oh, it's an honor to have you on the show. It's been a while, but you were doing some really great research, doing some incredible things. And so when I found out about this new book, wanted to get you on here to talk about it. And my first question, of course, you're no stranger to writing books, but I wanted to find out what made you decide to take on the topic of victimhood?

Well, in particular, I've taken on the topic of a victim mindset, and that's a bit different than victimhood.

I think that you can have been victimized and not have a victim mindset. You can have trauma and not be traumatized.

And so I really wanted to show people that one of the biggest inhibitors of their own self-acquisition is really how they interpret their own experiences and their own potential and their own future and hope that they have.

I have spent my career studying human potential.

And about 10 years ago, I started studying a topic called vulnerable narcissism.

And it was just very obvious to me how much this treat, this way of thinking, you can actually

think of it as a dynamic mindset

was really holding people back from happiness. I know you like that word from their happiness

and well-being and meaning and purpose in their lives. People really get in their own way

a lot more often than they think. So was it your observation of others?

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