Leighton shares insights from his transformative Happiness Equation, which includes a seven-question framework for measuring and enhancing happiness. He also recounts inspiring stories from his travels to the seven wonders of the world and offers practical tips for finding joy in daily life.
Don’t miss this engaging conversation—tune in now to start your journey toward the Happiness Equation!
#EPICBeginswith1StepForward, #ZanderSprague, #HappinessEquation, #IntentionalLiving, #Positivity
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Unlocking Your Happiness Equation: Insights From Leighton Campbell
Welcome back to another exciting episode of Epic Begins with One Step Forward. I am honored to be joined by Leighton Campbell. Leighton, tell us who you are and what you do.
I’m an author, and I’ve written a book titled Your Happiness Equation. The book is essentially about happiness, and part of it is you answer seven questions. At the end, you get your Happiness Score on a 0-to-100-point scale. Each variable is a chapter in the book. I’ve been around the world, have traveled the world. I’ve seen all Seven Wonders of the World. I’ve done extensive travel outside of that.
I have four children. I’m married. I’ve had a lot of experience in life, and I’ve always intentionally sought out information to help myself become happier. I’m trying to pass that on in a way that people can interact with, that is interesting. A lot of times, people, if they can get a score on something, I might be able to bring in people who would otherwise maybe not be interested in this content or would pass it by and want to see their score and then take the deep dive into the real meat of all of this and the real things that really push people’s happiness.
The 97.3 Rule: Focusing On The Positive In Life
I am so about the happiness that people need. There are so many things in our life that are good. In my book, I call it the 97-3 rule. I believe that 97% of your day is good, and up to 3% isn’t as good. However, we all have days where it’s higher than 3%, but in general, it is. Funnily, I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing or whatever, but people focus on the 3% and not on the 97% that is going well, and I’m baffled by that.
Negativity bias, I think, and I touched on that a little bit in my book. For example, my brother and I went and saw the Seven Wonders of the World, and the very last one that we went to was when we were heading to India. We had one of the worst travel days you can have, stuck in the airport for ten hours. We never left. It was incredibly frustrating, but when I looked back on it, every other place we went to, we never missed a flight, a bus, a taxi, or an Uber. It’s perfect. I can’t even recall the ones that went. I probably will never forget that one day that didn’t go well. It’s just the way we’re wired, unfortunately, but being aware of that is important so that way you don’t dwell on it.
The way I came up with the 97-3 rule was when I was doing my internship for my mental health license. I was doing school-based counseling, so middle school and high school, and talking with these high school students. They seemed to be ignoring all of the stuff that was going well in their life and only focusing on that one little thing that didn’t go well. I came up with this question, which is, what’s your least favorite subject in school?
A lot of them said math. I asked them, “How would you feel if you got a 97% on your next test?” They’re like, “I’d be so excited. I’d tell my parents. They’d be so proud.” I go, “Would you focus on the 3% you didn’t get?” They’re like, “Are you kidding? I got a 97.” I’m like, “Why aren’t you doing that in your life? There’s 97% of your day that’s good.” Leighton, you and I woke up this morning. It’s not to be morbid or anything, but that’s a really great way to start your day, waking up, right?
Intentionality And Gratitude: Keys To Overcoming Negativity Bias
A hundred percent. One of the questions in the book is gratitude, and we take so many things for granted. Understandably, to a degree, because we have so many things pulling us in so many different directions. We have a lot of responsibilities. As much as I try and be conscious about this stuff, when I’m going through a stressful time, it’s hard sometimes to have these gratitude practices that bring me back to it. However, just going through life and being aware that you need to be intentional about some of this stuff is very huge.
The intentionality of reminding yourself that when you do catch yourself, like on your travel day, and you’re like, “It’s not going well.” Totally, I do psychology. I understand. I get all of that. You remind yourself that even within all of that, having to wait ten hours, there are probably some experiences of that day that, if you look back, you’re like, “That was cool,” or, “That was interesting,” or, “I learned this about myself, about my brother, about the people I was around as we were sitting in this airport.” I, too, have been able to travel and have had those travel days where you’re like, “Murphy’s Law seems to be just dogging me today.”
My brother and I were the constant in all of the Seven Wonders, but we had different people with us at different times. On the India trip, we had a friend of mine from Jujitsu come with us, and he’s always wanted to go to India. To his credit, he was like, “Yes, I’m going to go with you guys.” I told him, “We’re having a rough day right now, but that only means that something really awesome is around the corner, because in order to get anything great, you have to go through something, and we’re just doing that now.” I’m not perfect. Sometimes I get caught up in it as well, too, but to have that thought in your mind is really powerful.
It again comes back to that intentionality of, let me look and say, “What has gone right? These things are not going right today, but what is going right?” I really do believe that so much more of our day goes right than goes wrong. The other thing I try and help get perspective for people is in baseball. You make it into the Hall of Fame if you have over a 300-batting average.
I’m not trying to discount that, but let’s say you and I are doing nine hours of work and activity or whatever. For us to have a Hall of Fame Day, we only have to get three hours right. That’s not a particularly high bar, to go, “I got three and a half hours of it right today. I got five and a half wrong, but it’s still a Hall of Fame Day.” It’s all about the perspective that we set for ourselves and for everyone else.
It’s all about the perspective that we set for ourselves and for everyone else.
I have high hopes for this project, and I think it’s going to go really well. One of the goals is to potentially get a best-selling author title. I have heard no so many times doing this. “No, I don’t want to publish your book. No, I don’t want to be a literary agent. No, I don’t want to write you an endorsement. No, I don’t want to buy your book.” I’ve heard no a million times.
What keeps me going is I feel like I am doing something that can definitely help people, but you can focus on the noes and be paralyzed by it. I got a really great message from a person. One of the posts that I made, I said, “I hope this project will have an impact.” A person who I met, I don’t have a long-term relationship with him, he was like, “What do you mean hope or what do you mean will have an impact? You already have had an impact.” I’m like, “That’s awesome.”
Totally, I get you. I’ve got my books, and when I get some feedback that someone liked the book, that it was helpful, it totally makes my day. I’ll be honest, I could float on that for a couple of days. I go, “Look at that really great comment. Someone liked it, awesome.”
It’s one of those things. We see these people that we look up to as very successful, as a finished product, but there’s a process that they went through. You talk about Hall of Fame baseball players, the same thing applies to pretty much every sport. In basketball, usually, the person goes through a process where they’re not good, and they put in work and effort to become great. We just think that finished product is the whole story, but it’s really not. They have to go through a lot to get there.
It’s really a lesson you can take from that, and life is, where are you going to put your focus? Are you going to focus on the things that didn’t go well and the things that are negative, or are you going to try and shift to the things that you can do, the things that have gone well, the people who have helped you, the people you’ve helped?
On any epic journey, there are detours, there are struggles. Failure is part of the journey. No one gets it right 100% of the time. If we just hammer the baseball analogy for just a moment more, 1 out of every 3 times at bat, you get some kind of a hit in your career. Pretty incredible. I was lucky. My first job out of college was working at the front desk of a hotel in San Francisco, and we had a National League Baseball team stay with us when they were playing the Giants.
I had the opportunity to meet all these professional players, and since they came in a couple of times a year and I was there for a couple of years, I got to know them a little. They recognized me and stuff, and that was great. I got to have some conversations. The amazing thing was they all said, “I can’t believe I get paid to play this because I love baseball so much. I would pay to go play. The fact that I make money from this is incredible.”
I think that there is that passion. I know I have it, and I can tell that you have it, which is, yes, the getting paid for what we’re doing is awesome, but it’s not the reason we’re doing it. We’re doing it because we’re passionate about helping people, about bringing positivity, happiness, and epicness to life. A little question for you about the Happiness Equation. What is it? How does it work?
We’re doing it because we’re passionate about helping people, about bringing positivity, happiness, and epicness to life.
The Happiness Equation: A Tool For Self-Discovery And Growth
I’ll give you the backstory, and we can go through the question. It started as a conversation with my children. We were sitting down, talking. We have all types of crazy, interesting, fun conversations. I was like, “Let’s see if we can come up with an equation for happiness,” and I did that because one of my sons, I could see he was down, and sometimes the direct approach is not the way. A roundabout approach. We’re talking about it, and at the end of the conversation, I look at what I have. I was like, “There’s something here, I think.” It was powerful. It was a very rudimentary version of it, but there was something there.
I was then, and I am now, a member of a networking group. At the time, I was responsible for bringing an educational topic to our chapter every week. There are about 40 business professionals in our chapter. I took that week, from the conversation with my children to the time that I had to give this educational moment, and I did some more research and polished it up a little. It’s greatly evolved since then, but that was a more polished version at the time. I gave the presentation to my group, and I know these people very well.
I’ve given many other presentations about different educational topics and never really got any type of response. On this one, almost everybody in the chapter either came up to me, called me, emailed me, or texted me and said, “Leighton, that was so impactful. I’m so glad you talked about it.” They opened up to me about things that were going on or things that they felt they needed to improve. After that experience, I realized I have to do something about this. I have to get the word out. That was three and a half years ago. The book’s been written, and I’ve done the book tour and all that.
The actual equation is very geeky. It is in the book. You can also get a score for free. You don’t have to buy my book to get your Happiness Score. You can go on our website and answer the seven questions to get your score with no obligation. It’s a score of numerators, denominators, and there are exponents in all of that. Again, you can still get your score for free. However, in order to get your score, there are seven questions that you need to answer, and each of those responses has a numerical value that is plugged into the equation that I developed. I can go through the seven questions if this is a good time to do that.
Sure. I’m fascinated. I want to know.
The very first question is, are your basic human needs being met? That is a yes or no question. In the book, I talk about Maslow’s hierarchy, so there’s some research and science behind it. However, to really do a deep dive on happiness, you want to make sure your basic needs are being met. That’s going to limit your ability to either be happy at all or the level of happiness you can achieve if you’re not sure how you’re going to eat or if you don’t feel secure or safe. That’s the very first question. Hopefully, we can answer yes to that or start working towards making that a yes.
The second question is, do you belong to a group that is meaningful to you, and do you meet regularly with them? That’s the second question. That ties in community, human connection, and bonding, and addresses some of the issues that we have in modern society, such as people being by themselves a lot, isolationism, and so on and so forth.
The next question is, on an A+ to F scale, how would you rate the value that you bring to the groups that you belong to? This is not all the groups you belong to. This is the groups that are important to you. Of the ones that are important to you, how would you rate the value that you bring to those groups? We can go into all these in more detail after or now, if you have anything you want to jump in with.
No, so far this is fast. I’m just interested to know what the questions are.
The next question is, on an A+ to F scale, how would you rate your gratitude? That’s number four. The fifth question is, when a meaningful situation does not go as expected, does the negative impact on your emotions last a short time, a moderate time, or a long time? Number six is, do you believe your life has a purpose? Number seven is, on an A+ to F scale, how would you rate your progress toward achieving your purpose in life? Those are the questions.
Those are great questions.
Some of the deepest questions you can ask yourself.
Here’s a question for you. How often do you take your own happiness test?
The power of the test is to really identify an area that you need to work on.
Areas of development.
I encourage people not to get hung up on your score. Don’t try and get 100%. That can end up causing you to be less happy if you’re very fixated on your score and you’re trying to do everything you can to maximize it. That’s really not the direction to go with it. The best place to go with it is to take the quiz, identify an area that you’re like, “I thought I was better at that,” or “I feel like it could be better with that,” and then you take that one thing and start to work on it. I’ve taken my score many times at this point.
Don’t get hung up on your score. Don’t try and get 100%. That can end up causing you to be less happy.
It’s tough. I wish I could get 100. I don’t. The one that I struggle with the most is how quickly I get over things. I wish I could say a short time, but I’m still at moderate, and that does pull my score down. It is something that I am very aware of. I had a situation days ago where I thought, “I’ve got to let this go. I have to let this go.” I did, but unfortunately, it was probably 24 hours into it.
The work I do both professionally as a mental health counselor but also just as a coach helping people, I talk about how many cycles are you? How much energy are you using thinking about this thing or perseverating on this issue, this whatever? Whether it’s that you feel someone did wrong to you, you don’t like the way you reacted to something, whatever.
You, as a dad, I’m a dad also, there are things that I think back on with my daughters that I still think about that happened many years ago. They have no memory of it, and yet I’m like, “I can’t believe I did that.” I talk to my daughters about it. I bring it up. I’m like, “I found this picture, and I remember when this happened, and I still feel really badly that I did that.” They look at me like, “Dad. One, I barely remember it, and two, I’m only thinking about it because you brought it up. I certainly am not stuck on that.”
I think as a parent, we put so much pressure on ourselves to be everything for our kids. We’re not perfect. We are going to make mistakes, and that’s okay. We teach our kids that they’re going to make mistakes, that they’re not going to get it perfect, and that’s okay. Academically, when I was in school, there were subjects that were easier and subjects that were harder. The best thing that my dad said to me was, “I don’t care what letter grade you have, as long as you know that you’ve done your best.” If your best is a C+ in this, because you just struggle so hard to understand it, I’ll say geometry, I worked really hard.
The amount of effort and the actual result were not necessarily equal. I knew that it didn’t matter because I knew I had worked as hard as I could, and I just didn’t get it. My parents were like, “Great.” They’re like, “There are things that you have to do, but they don’t make sense, and there are other things where it’s almost like the answers are in front of you.” Just subjects that just make sense to you, and you’re like, “I totally get this.” Probably why, psychology.
Two things I say to myself are, one, I tell myself in moments, not necessarily related to what we’re talking about now, but just going through life or something, if I don’t show up the way that I wanted to, but I know I did the best I can, I tell myself, “I can’t do better than my best. I did the best I could, and this is what the result was. I honestly tried, and I did the best that I could with the factors that were going on.” The other thing I tell myself is, “I forgive myself.” It’s like, I didn’t do that right, but I forgive myself for that, and to the best I can, I keep it moving.
The Importance Of Sharing Knowledge And Spreading Positivity
I want to shift just a little because one of the things I like to talk about and highlight is, knowledge is no good if we don’t share it. One part of my epic is epic destinations, those places that we’ve got to visit where you’re like, and this place was incredible. What’s your top one or two epic destinations that you’ve got to go to, where you’re like, I’d go back there in a second?
I got two for you. First one is Machu Picchu. That place is, I don’t mean literally magical, but it’s just magical.
I hear. I haven’t been there, but yes.
It is so amazing. The landscapes are absolutely breathtaking. The structures there are immaculate. I’m getting chills as I’m telling you this. When you’re walking through the ruins, you almost feel like you’re walking through a time when those people were there. It’s the wildest thing. We went to Machu Picchu as an accident. I had no idea what Machu Picchu was. We were like, “Let’s just go somewhere in South America. Where’s the cheapest flight from Miami?” Peru was. “Let’s go to Peru.” “What are we going to do in Peru?” “I don’t know.” “What’s the coolest thing to do in Peru?” “Machu Picchu.” “We’ll go there.” We had no idea what we were getting into, and it just blew us away.
When you’re walking through the ruins, you almost feel like you’re walking through a time when those people were there.
Machu Picchu, for sure, number one. That’s what kicked off the Seven Wonders of the World because when we were there, we were like, “If this is on the list of Seven Wonders of the World, what else is on the list?” That’s that one. This one is not on the Wonders of the World, but I think it should be because there are some that maybe shouldn’t have been.
Pompeii. We were in Italy to see the Colosseum, and the Colosseum was very interesting. We went and saw some of the other things, but I got a similar feeling in Pompeii as I did in Machu Picchu because some of those almost entire portions of the city are intact, and you walk through their living rooms. It is wild. It is very interesting. I would make the case that it should be on the Seven Wonders of the World list. I would say those two. If you can only see two things in the world of the things that I’ve seen, I would recommend Machu Picchu and Pompeii.
Did you get to see Victoria Falls?
I have not. I’ve been to Egypt and Africa, but I have not been to Victoria Falls. It is definitely on the list.
Epic Destinations: Machu Picchu, Pompeii, And The Power Of Travel
I’ve been fortunate to see Victoria Falls, and it is incredible. To watch a million gallons a second come over, that’s amazing. One thing I want to share about things not necessarily meeting the expectation, even though you didn’t think you had expectations, when I was in South Africa, I went to the Cape of Good Hope, and I was like, “This is great. The end of the African continent.” Although I don’t think I had an expectation, I believe I did. We’re like, “Here we go.” We go out, and there’s some rocks, and there’s water.
Technically, on the left is the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean is on the right. Here we are at the end of the African continent. In my mind, what I thought it might’ve been Monty Python-esque, where there was like a tent with the streamers, and there were klieg lights and the deep voice of James Earl Jones, “The end of the African continent.” It wasn’t. Honestly, if you blindfolded me and put me out there, I was standing on some rocks, and there was ocean. It was not as spectacular. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it just wasn’t like that, “Oh.” Maybe for you, it sounds like the Roman Colosseum was cool, but you weren’t like, “Oh my gosh, Machu Picchu.”
It was cool.
I’m not taking anything away from either one of those, but I got that feeling where you’re like, Pompeii was definitely much better.
It was better, for sure. If you’re in Italy, and a lot of people go and see the Colosseum, I would definitely take time to check out Pompeii. Can I ask you a question? What are your top one or two places you’ve been?
I would say getting to go on safari in South Africa. I can say Africa is in my heart. I’ve been fortunate to travel there a few times. It is incredible. I’ve been able to get dangerously close to animals that could kill me, and it’s thrilling and exciting. It’s amazing. I’ll say, when you go to the right place, I happened to get to go to Londolozi, which is on the edge of Kruger National Park. It’s incredible. They have some really good rules, which I think help with the game viewing, such as they won’t have more than three Land Rovers at a sighting.
Let’s say there are lions, leopards or elephants. There won’t be more than three so that it’s not overcrowded. There are other places I’ve heard of where you go, like up in Kenya, watching the wildebeest migration, and there are a hundred other cars there. That, to me, I will own perhaps being a bit of a safari snob in the sense of my first experience, not having a lot of other people around, makes a difference. I’d say definitely the veld of South Africa is definitely up there.
The other was when I was in college. I went to Australia for a semester abroad, and I traveled back and went to the Cook Islands and Aitutaki, which is this ring reef. Here, you are in the middle of the Pacific, which is beautiful. Within it, there’s this ring reef with this water that is so clear and blue and just incredible. I was there on a day tour. We flew in, were out on a snorkel boat, and I was looking down at stingrays, like 60 feet down, and I could see them just clear as day. It was just so beautiful.
To say the honor of being able to travel and see this beautiful place and take it in, I tried to take pictures, but it was honestly, Leighton, one of those times where you look through the camera, this was before cell phones, and I’m like, “I’m going to take a picture, but it’s just not doing justice.” I also got to travel on that same trip. I was traveling through New Zealand, and I’m looking through a camera like this, and yet there are these enormous hills and mountains and fields. I’m like, “I’m just not getting it.”
It doesn’t capture it. Fortunately, my brother’s a photographer. It’s a double-edged sword because we end up taking a million pictures when I’m trying to sometimes be in the moment. There’s a balance. I’ve come to realize the importance of having pictures, but I also try to be in the moment. He’s taken some pictures that I posted, and this is one of the highest compliments you can have from a traveler who has pictures, “Is that a green screen?” When people comment, “Are you really there, or is that a green screen?” It’s like, “No, I was really there. I really saw it.”
Living In The Moment: Balancing Capturing Memories With Experiencing Them
The important message there is, although you do want to capture the picture to be able to go back and relive it, be in the moment. My experience with lots of people is there’s something spectacular going on, and they’ve got their phones up. I’ve been to some concerts where I’m like, “Why are you filming this? Why is your camera up in front of your face? I’m here to enjoy the music. I came here intentionally because I wanted to hear it live. I don’t want to stand behind you and see your screen.”
Be in the moment. With many people, something spectacular is often happening, yet they have their phones up.
It’s the world now. A lot of those people are, and I’m guilty of it too at times, recording the moment so they can show their friends and the people who follow them that they were at a great concert. I know a lot of people, and I have done it myself, but I don’t know anyone who goes back and watches their concert footage years later. They don’t.
You’re like, “I was there. Do you want to see the video?” I’m like, “No, I want you to describe it in your own words. I’m sure it was incredible.” Anyway, Leighton, how can people get to your website to take the Happiness Equation, find your book, and find you to interact with you?
The best place to find out more information about the project, to order the book if you’d like, or to get your completely free Happiness Score is our website, and that is YourHappinessEq.com. That’s where you can do all of that. If you want to follow us on social media, the best platform to do that is on Instagram, and that’s @YourHappinessEq.
Thank you so much, Leighton. It’s so much fun to talk to you. If I might say, it is truly epic to talk to you. I love what you’re doing. I think it’s so important, and I look forward to supporting you.
Thanks, Zander. I really appreciate the opportunity to come here.
No problem. If you’re ready to step into your epic, go to EpicBegins.com. There are courses there for you to jumpstart your epic. As always, remember, epic choices lead to the epic life that you want.
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About Leighton Campbell
Have you ever wanted to find happiness, become happier, or just protect your naturally happy disposition? In the new book: Your Happiness Equation, author Leighton Campbell guides readers through that and more! Join us for some valuable information and free resources that can change your life forever.
Leighton Campbell is a devoted husband, father of four, successful entrepreneur, and world traveler. As a two-time author, he draws from his diverse experiences to offer fresh insights and inspiration. Now, he invites you to join him on his latest journey. Let’s embark on a path to discovering true happiness.