Live Simple, Stay Happy and Be Healthy

June 17, 2025

Live Simple, Stay Happy and Be Healthy

Hello! How is each and every one?  As we go through the rest of this month-full of feast days and solemnities in our family, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, let us truly savor and cherish all the blessings being showered over each one of us.  We have been receiving so much love and mercy from our Father God throughout this year, joys and sorrows are so united together like struggle and peace.  I am more and more convinced that they go together and they are doing the good they are allowed to do.  They are occasions or opportunities to respond with thanksgiving and joyful self-giving. 

Somebody just responded that she was born to accept, to adjust and to adapt to whatever the good Lord sends her way. She added that she was not born to choose, but to thank God for everything after she realizes everything is good.  

Indeed, everything is good because everything that happens is allowed by God to work out a certain good.  It is up to each one of us to discover whatever good there is for each one of us.  Hence the right attitude is to be grateful for everything and benefit from the good there is in it.

Now I am at a loss for words to start this new series of posts after taking a break from the series on Broken Gods, Hope, Healings, The Seven Divine Longings by Gregory Popcak, Ph. D. I remember having mentioned in one post that I heard EWTN interviewing the author of an interesting book, Superhabits, The Universal System for a Successful Life, Andrew V. Abela Ph. D. I expressed my desire to share chapters of that book with you after.  I guess the time to do that has come.

Personally I go for self help books.  For me they have always been interesting, helpful, yet challenging and they give me reasons to be simple, joyful and grateful.  They help me find meaning in everyday situations, interactions, relationships, and communications.  They give me directives on how to manage through inconveniences, difficulties, by cultivating the right attitudes and approaches towards given circumstances. On top of it all I get to know myself more and more.  I learn how to go against the current of my own weaknesses and against the surrounding current outside.

Following are portions of the introduction (from SUPERHABITS, The Universal System for a Successful Life by Andrew V. Abela, PH.D., Dean, Busch School of Business, The Catholic University of America, 2024). I put portions together to start off this remarkable topic on human life that much within our individual persons.  Who does not want to live a simple, happy and healthy life? That is a much desired quest in every person but without truly knowing how to go about doing so and where to find it. It is my hope that with these series you and I can start on our way working towards achieving or fulfilling that desire to live simple, stay happy and be healthy.  Where do we start?  Since you and I are the main actors we start with ourselves.

The excerpt goes:

“Self-improvement can be complicated. One self-help book recommends strengthening your communication skills; another says focus on your empathy; still another says journalize techniques.  We’re supposed to Start with Why, have Grit, have Drive, have the right Mindset, be vulnerable by Daring Greatly, be a Badass, be Quiet, learn to Think Big, or Think Small, focus on The ONE Thing, and practice The Subtle Art of Not Giving a****.

Then you wonder:  Are all of these things really important? You have a sense that they might be (except, perhaps, the last one).  But, how do they all fit together?  How can I put them all into practice? How can I ever remember them all?

Have you ever watched a child learn to walk? As I wrote this, our grandson Owen was learning to walk.  We watched him as he carefully, intently took each step, concentrating so hard that his tongue was sticking out between his teeth (which was a bit worrisome).  He had the muscles, and the balance.  But each step was a huge mental effort.  He didn’t yet have the habit of walking.  It wasn’t yet automatic.

There is a set of mental habits, quite as essential as walking, which can be learned.  They are habits for managing our thoughts, our actions, and our feelings.  If you learn them, instead of crawling through life, you will be able to walk – and then run.

Consider this.  Do you or any of your colleagues struggle with making decisions or getting along with others, or suffer from anxiety?  The habits I’m speaking about are precisely the ones needed to handle these issues.

If we fail to learn these habits, we can usually hobble along.  But instead of doing things fluidly and effectively, we will have to concentrate hard to take each step, like little Owen. Whether it is making a difficult decision, dealing with a problematic colleague, or responding to an emotional outburst, we’ll have our tongue between our teeth.  If we fall over, it will hurt.  Like the city of Cusco, we may be shaken to the point of calamity.

The good news is that, across multiple fields, ancient habits are now being recovered – just like the Inca building techniques – allowing us to live more successfully and to achieve superb results in our daily lives.

Global consulting firms, researchers at major universities, and advocacy organizations are calling attention to these time-tested ways of living.  McKinsey and Company refers to them as “distinct elements of talent.”  Deloitte describes them as core “capabilities.”  Both agree that they are essential for improving productivity.  America Succeeds, an education-focused non-profit organization, considers them to be “durable skills” and in very high demand.  The Search Institute calls them Internal Developmental Assets and has extensive research showing that they help young people grow into “caring, responsible, and productive adults.”  The field of positive psychology, which has been studying these habits for three decades now, refers to them as “character strengths.”  Researchers at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University have shown their contribution to a better life.  The University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations has investigated their impact on organizational success.  The Optimal Work project has a highly effective coaching platform built on them.  Professors at Oxford University and at several universities here in the United States, including my own, are working on helping our students develop them.

But what are these habits, these specific forms of excellence that are so important?  Classically, they are called virtues.  They are far older than Machu Picchu, and the power they contain is incalculable.  In fact, as the positive psychology research shows, they are like superpowers: as you develop any one of them, your life becomes calmer, more productive, more joyful, and healthier. And anyone can develop them through practice.

One of the best, most complete descriptions of what superhabits can do for us was written by a brilliant thirteenth-century Italian philosopher-monk named Thomas Aquinas, who lived 750 years ago.  Nearly forgotten over the succeeding centuries, Aquinas’s framework organizes the superhabits and shows how they are central to human life.  In this book I will introduce you to his system, and use it to integrate three different and important streams of work.  The first is the scientific research I mentioned above, in positive psychology, management, and education.  This research provides sound empirical evidence of the extraordinary benefits of each superhabit.

The second stream of work is the contemporary “habits” literature. You’re likely familiar with bestselling books like Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and Professor B. J. Fogg’s Tiny Habits.  These books show convincingly how small changes can have a big impact in your life, by creating habits.  Since superhabits are habits themselves everything these books say about habits applies to superhabits too.  But we’ll also see how Aquinas’s framework shows which habits – from the thousands of possible habits you could imagine – most merit your attention right now and will have the biggest impact on your life.

The third research stream is the “rules” literature, such as Jordan Peterson’s immensely popular 12 Rules for Life (and its sequel Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life) and Stanford University professor Jeffrey Pfeffer’s 7 Rules of Power.  Each of these books condenses extensive empirical research about different parts of life into specific rules, such as “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world,” “Get out of your own way.”

As a result, you will be able to take the wisdom in the “rules” books and turn it into superhabits that become second nature.  Instead of Inca building blocks that resist earthquakes you will have an integrated system of living that is scientifically proven to enhance dramatically the quality of your life and your impact on others.

My university, Washington, D.C. – based Catholic University of America, and specifically the Busch School of Business where I am the founding and current dean, is on the leading edge of cultivating these superhabits in the lives of our students.  Our university’s unique combination of expertise in philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, theology, education, and organizational behavior has allowed us to integrate these fields of study into a practical program for our students.  Our graduates are in great demand by employers and, as shown by a recent Gallup survey, are outperforming their peers in the different dimensions of human well-being, social, personal, and financial, and have a workforce engagement rate that is double the national average.

My purpose in writing this book is to share what we have learned so that others can benefit from our experience. We’ll begin our exploration of the system of superhabits with one simple, but high leveraged superhabit that prevents us from sabotaging ourselves right at the outset.”

On my part I have the same intention to share with you what I have read and am learning from this beautiful book on superhabits by Dr. Andrew V. Abela, Ph. D.  I hope you also appreciate it and practice or re-practice those superhabits for a simpler, happier and healthier life.

As always I remind ourselves that includes myself to talk things over with the Lord in our quiet moments of prayer and go deeper into ourselves with Him to guide us on and transform each one of us with His grace.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky