Oprah Winfrey

So I didn't know this before researching the book, but our values, what we value impacts our well-being.

So when, you know, researchers who study it say all of us all over the world have the same core values inside of us and researchers separate them out into extrinsic values and intrinsic values.

Extrinsic values are things like wanting the big house, wanting the

High status career.

That's right.

The car.

The car.

The things that label you.

A certain image.

Those are extrinsic values.

Intrinsic values are things like wanting to be good to the environment, wanting to be pro-social, wanting to grow spiritually, wanting to be a good neighbor.

Values operate like a zero-sum game.

So the more time and energy you spend pursuing values,

these extrinsic values, the less room you have in your life for pursuing intrinsic ones.

And here's why this matters, because extrinsic values are linked with negative mental health and substance abuse disorder, whereas intrinsic values are linked with the wellbeing we want.

And here, it's not that we in America

have bad values.

It's that our extrinsic values are constantly being activated.

On social media, in the wider media, we are hearing these messages day in and day out in our hyper capitalistic culture that you need these things to matter.

Whereas people who live their lives and organize their lives through intrinsic values, what they are doing is they are more likely living a life of mattering, living a life where they feel valued by their people and where they know that they add meaningful value back.