Jake Pearson  00:00

Are you trying to figure out the secret to happiness? We're here at What Makes You Happy with Jake Pearson. We want to make that happiness more accessible for you in your life. So stick around as we interview everyday people, inspirational leaders and your favorite celebrities on what makes them happy.

Welcome back to the podcast where we ask the question, what makes you happy?

My name is Jake Pearson. And today we have with us a physician and author. We have Robert Saul, from South Carolina in the United States. Robert, how are you?

Robert Saul  00:37

I'm fine. It's beautiful weather here.

Jake Pearson  00:40

Thank you for joining us to share what makes you happy. I know you've taken some time to go a little bit of a trip. Am I correct? 

Robert Saul  00:49

That's correct. But glad to be here.

Jake Pearson  00:52

Beautiful. So despite you being on holiday, you're here to share what makes you happy. And we're very appreciative of that. Robert, could you start with just a couple things that make you happy?

Robert Saul  01:01

Probably for a lot of people, the one thing that makes me happy is my family. My spouse, my children, and my grandchildren, and being able to spend the time with them and enjoy the time with them is a thing of pure happiness. Related to that is my work of being a pediatrician and lifelong children's advocate, anything I can do on behalf of children is sort of-- especially now that I'm retired, this sort of defines my efforts. And I'm very excited to get into that for children, because that's- I'm not talking about a legacy per se. I want to make my life meaningful on behalf of other people. And that's what I want to do for children.

Jake Pearson  01:49

Beautifully said, and how long has that been something that you've found joy in doing something meaningful for children?

Robert Saul  01:56

Well, I'd like to think it's my whole career, which is 44- I have been over 44 years from when I graduated from medical school. But I've been on this journey of writing about things for children, and about parenting, and about citizenship, and about happiness now for almost 30 years. And for me, it's been a fantastic journey. Because I've grown so much individually. I've been able to write these things, but I realized, and I hope that they have some contexts of meaning to other people. But the real answer is that they make me a better person, I think that they're sort of my external journal that I can. And if some people find benefit in it, great. If not, I at least have grown and learned so much.

Jake Pearson  02:53

Oh, that's lovely. Thank you for sharing that, Robert. For our audience who may be struggling to find happiness in their lives. What would you recommend? 

Robert Saul  03:03

Well, I think one of the major aspects of parenting is raising your children to be good citizens. I think parents are always thinking about how can I make sure my children are happy? My bias is if you raise your child to be a good citizen, happiness is a blissful secondary side effect. So I think we need to be concentrating on helping others doing what we can. Now I recognize that it might be easy, in certain circumstances might be very difficult, in certain circumstances because of problems in people's lives. So it's easy to look external- It's difficult, I should say, to look externally. But I think that's what's so important. I think that's what we've lost track of, in our civilized societies, is the ability to take care of each other in a very empathic way. And the other thing related to that is reading, reading about nonfiction and fiction. It's amazing what I think, wow, that's so beautiful. I need to twist that nut twisted, use that to express myself, because it was so beautifully said. And it's material I would never have found otherwise. So I just find myself very open to reading as much as I can.

Jake Pearson  04:27

Thank you very much, Robert, for sharing all things that make you happy and the beautiful piece of advice there as well. We appreciate your time. 

Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope it gives you something to think about on your quest to discover what makes you happy. Make sure to check out whatmakesyouhappypodcast.com to connect with today's guest and follow us on all our social media platforms, and to stay up to date on what's happening next and what makes you happy. Don't forget to share this episode with a friend and we'll see you next time!