What Happier Students Do Differently // The Happiness Blueprint Podcast e022

Lily & Lincoln, from MSU UAB, share how their NACA experience has been, how they’ve intentionally evolved their events, and their secrets for sustained happiness (featuring Bobby Dutton as a special guest host!!)

0:00 Lincoln & Lily from MSU UAB
0:52 NACA Recap
2:33 Intentionally Evolving Events
5:03 Secret to Sustaining Happiness
6:43 What Makes Lincoln & Lily Happy

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A special thank you to Vibe Arcs for sponsoring today's episode. To get started on tracking your personal, team or project happiness metrics, visit https://vibearcs.com/ 

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The Happiness Blueprint
// Powered by GBM6
// The podcast where we uncover how people build happier lives.

GBM6 
// Let's Build LEGENDARY Together
// To get started, visit https://gbm6.com/ 

Think Like a Pilot
// Bobby Dutton, founder & director of GBM6, is a professional speaker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He's also a licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor -- for fun. 
// To connect with Bobby or learn more about his keynotes, visit https://thinklikeapilot.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This is the Happiness Blueprint, the podcast where we uncover how people build happier lives. And uh introduce yourselves. Please tell us who you are, where you're from, and uh your organization.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Um my name is Lincoln. I'm the chairperson with the University Activities Board at Michigan State.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Nice. Lincoln, get real close to the mic. Really get it in your in your face. Yeah, it's gotta be right. Please.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

And can you give me that intro one more time?

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Yeah, so I'm uh my name's Lincoln and I'm the chairperson with UAB at Michigan State University. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Um, I'm Lily. I'm the membership and retention coordinator for UAB.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Awesome, cool. Oh, I gotta play the beginning of the podcast sound. Here we go. This is the happiness blueprint. Didn't do it. All right, we'll put that in a post later. That's okay. But uh cool. So uh you're we're here at NACA, we're here in Columbus. You guys drove in. Yes. Um tell us a little bit about the conference so far and kind of where you're at in life and your your professional journey this weekend at NACA.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, I mean, this has been really fun, honestly. I went to NACA last year in Philly and a similar experience, it's basically the same thing. But yeah, it's been really fun getting to like know people from like other uh schools and like connect with people and like see what I can bring to Michigan State.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Nice. Yeah, I feel like the the crosstalk is such an important piece that's easy to miss. We're all in our own silo, solving our own problems, trying to do our best, but we don't really know what what people are going through in similar roles nearby. Is that something that sounds relatable?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yeah, this is my first NACA. So this is the first one I've been to. I've enjoyed it a lot. I've enjoyed talking to other schools and like seeing how their like activities boards like are set up because they're a lot different than ours, yeah, which is really interesting. And I honestly loved the uh I was at your session for one of the ed sessions for mute, like the concerts yesterday. Yeah, and I have nothing to do with concerts because I'm not the music person at our board, but I've gone to like two ed sessions now for it, and I feel like I know so much and I just like want to make it better. Concert expert. I know, I feel I feel like I have so much more knowledge on it now. It was super cool, like the things you talked about with like the after party or like setting up making it an experience and not just based on only the artist.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Yeah, totally. I feel like there's there's two two potential ways to go wrong for this kind of program and maybe programs in general, and it's we're gonna do it the way it's always been done, and we're gonna change everything. These are both things that we all have said, and they both can be powerful and good changes, but they can also both be really dangerous. I think the the most important thing is think creatively, challenge yourself to ask the right questions and uh make intentional choices. Maybe it is exactly the same because it's perfect and it was perfect before. That's okay. Maybe it needs a change, and then that that can be a good thing too. What what have you seen with kind of intentionally evolving your your traditions and your events?

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Um, one of our events was it used to be called um Dice and Ice, I think. It's at like our ice rink, which is called Mun.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

But uh recently, I forgot when it was, maybe like five or ten years ago. Like we can't do gambling events, like gambling associated events at Michigan State.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

So now it's called Fun at the Mun. It's actually happening next weekend. Nice. Those two over there are the ones that plant, like they heart planet. We have like three people in total that like are in charge of planning that event specifically.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

And uh yeah, it's weird to see how it evolves over time based on like rules, but like each year it's different because I've been here for like three years. Yeah. So like I've seen like the different people that run it like pick different things or have a different setup. So it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

This episode of the Happiness Blueprint Podcast is brought to you by Vibarx. Goals, budgets, and KPIs can tell you what happened, but they don't tell you how people felt while doing the work. Happiness is the most important metric of all, and it needs a system. Vibearx is that system for prioritizing your mental health and tracking emotional metrics for individuals, teams, and even projects. Users submit a weekly two-minute check-in, online or in the app, for metrics like happiness, stress, and utilization. Then, Vibarx processes that data into quantified metrics that help spot patterns, celebrate wins, and encourage support where needed. Personally, I loved using Vibarx with my team at GBM6. It's like such a great way to check in myself and make sure I'm hitting both my professional and my personal goals. I especially love that asks me for three things that I'm happy about every week. During busy season, I find that things can feel a little chaotic and stressful, so this has felt like a really great tool to reframe my focus and make sure I'm aware of how many great things are happening around me, even in the most stressful moments. Vibearx is free forever for individuals, .edu teams, and .org teams. All other organizations can start with a 60-day free trial and then pay just $5 per user per month to build a healthier, happier, and more engaged workplace. Check out the link in our description to get started on your own journey towards a happier personal and professional life. Thank you to Vivebox for sponsoring today's episode. Alright, back to the show.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Yeah, yeah, that's one of those cases where change is good but the tradition is strong. And that's that's a good thing. Nice. How about outside of events? What would you what would you suggest to someone who's struggling to sustainably be happy and positive and feel like they're living a good life? What's what's your secret to to finding happiness? And it can have nothing to do with college or events if that's what comes to mind.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Um, I don't know. I for me, I really just try to like focus on like the things I love and the things I love doing. Um, because I just feel like whenever I'm having like a bad day, I can just like rely on those things to like cheer me up and get me in a better mood. So I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Nice, yeah. Totally. That's cool. For me, I feel like when I get most like stress or like anxiety, like it just like builds up.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

But a lot of the times it's like a lot of little things. So like sometimes I'm able to do it where I like think I'm like, okay, I'm like super stressed about this, but then I think about what thing is I'm stressed about. I'm like, okay, this is it's not that bad. Like, I'm I'm gonna be fine. Yeah, it's gonna be okay, I'm just gonna get through it, and then I'm gonna be like, I'm looking I start looking forward to the things that are like gonna be cool later in the week that I can like look forward to and I'd be excited about.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

You shift gears mentally. We talked about that with the whole ViVarcs thinking and calling out those happy things to give them space in your head and and conquer that negativity bias because our brains are really annoying in that they will tell us everything that's wrong, whether we need to fix that stuff right now or not. That can really be a drag, but these things these things make it better for sure. Yeah. I've also noticed that uh in times of stress or whatever, uh I've noticed times where I've had the exact same set of problems and factors and good and bad, whatever, and like one day I'll be in a great mood, but all that stuff's the same, and one day I'll be totally dragged down by it. And that's interesting because I'm like, oh, it's really not it's it's really up here. It's it's a choice somehow I respond to this, and uh it that that kind of feels free in a team. Yeah, what's bringing you both happiness right now?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Honestly, being around these people, my co-workers.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Yeah, it's a good group.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Yeah, nice. I agree. It's that's I've been really looking forward to that. And the weather's getting better. Yes. I'm a big disc golfer, so I'm like outs outdoor activity type guy, so that's that oddest that instantly makes me happy.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Uh I I hear that. It has been frigid in Boston. Last weekend we had uh shows at Dartmouth and Colby, and it was negative 30 degrees. Yeah, you were talking about that. That was terrifying. That's too cold to be happy no matter what, because it's dangerous to be outside. So yeah, wild. Um, nice. Anything else uh exciting you'd like to call out for stuff to look forward to or shout out to events or people on campus or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Um yeah, I don't know. I guess just shout out to UAB at MSU. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Fun at the month coming up. Yeah, the 21st of February. If you go to MSU and you watch this somehow. There it is. It's gonna be awesome. We're gonna have a bunch of free giveaways. I s or the hockey team, a lot of cool stuff.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Can I come?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Perfect. Well, I hope we're able to record this and edit it because we don't know what we're doing. We're making it up as we go. I feel like we did a good job. I agree. But thank you both for chatting with us and uh thank you for watching.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah, of course. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Yeah, thanks for talking with us. That was fun. All right, we're clear. Thanks for listening to the happiness blueprint, powered by GBM6. It's about making people happy.