Success Doesn't Equal Happiness—Todd Patkin Explains Why

Most people hang out with five people who make them miserable and wonder why life feels like a slow-motion car crash.

Todd Patkin figured this out the hard way. Successful businessman, beautiful family, more money than he ever dreamed of making. Then at 36, he fractured both feet jumping off a table at work, lost a pregnancy two weeks later, and had a complete nervous breakdown that made him want to end it all.

The guy had everything society says you're supposed to want. But he was broken. Completely shattered. Couldn't get out of bed broken.

Here's what he discovered after crawling back from the edge. He created a simple exercise where you write down the five people you spend the most time with. Then you rate each person on a scale of one to ten. One means they're so negative they could ruin your best day. Ten means they could lift you up on your worst day.

Add up those numbers, divide by five, and boom. You've got your happiness score right there staring back at you.

If your average is a one or two, you're basically drowning yourself in negativity every single day. No wonder you feel terrible. Your brain is marinating in garbage.

Todd also found out that loneliness is now the number one health hazard in America. People who stay lonely die 29% earlier than everyone else. They get way more dementia too. Your body literally starts breaking down when you're isolated from other humans.

Think about that for a second. Being lonely is worse for you than smoking or being overweight. Yet half the people working from home right now go an entire week without talking face to face with another human being.

Wild, right?

The same thing happens with chronic illness. Your body gets stuck in patterns that keep making you sicker. The stress builds up, the isolation creeps in, and suddenly you're trapped in a cycle that feels impossible to break.

That's exactly why I put together this week's episode of The Conversations. Todd breaks down his entire 12-week program to happiness, including how exercise saved his life, why most people spend half their time living in the past, and how to stop beating yourself up every single day.

Give it a listen right here and see what resonates with your own journey.