Imagine this: You’ve just finished a long week. Your to-do list is still buzzing in your head, your inbox is bursting at the seams, and you’re carrying the weight of other people’s expectations like a backpack full of bricks. You flop onto the couch and ask yourself the same question everyone does at some point—

“Why does life feel so heavy when I’m doing everything I’m supposed to?”

Now imagine a different life. One where the noise is quieter. The weight is lighter. The decisions come easier. A life not just filled with moments of happiness, but structured to cultivate it—strategically, deliberately, and sustainably.

This is where the Zero Life Happiness Formula comes in. It’s not another feel-good mantra. It’s a clear, math-based approach to freeing yourself from the hidden taxes on your peace—drama, cost, and responsibility. And here’s the kicker: it’s not about adding more joy, it’s about subtracting what drains it.

Why Most Happiness Advice Falls Short

Let’s be honest. We’re drowning in advice that tells us to chase happiness like it’s a glittering prize at the end of a productivity rainbow.

Gratitude journals. Vision boards. Meditation apps. And while all of that can help, it often feels like slapping a coat of paint over a cracked wall. Because none of it addresses the real question:

What’s quietly eroding your joy right now?

The Zero Life approach flips the usual self-help script. Instead of asking, “How do I add more happiness to my life?” it asks, “What can I remove that’s making happiness impossible to feel in the first place?”

The Happiness Formula: 100 – avg[Drama, Cost, Responsibility]

Paul’s formula is beautifully simple and ruthlessly effective:

Happiness = 100 – avg(drama, cost, responsibility)

Here’s what that means:

• Drama: Emotional chaos, toxic relationships, unnecessary conflict
• Cost: Financial burdens, time drains, energy leaks
• Responsibility: Obligations you didn’t ask for, roles you’ve outgrown, silent pressures

Each of these three variables acts like a tax on your happiness. The higher they are, the lower your overall freedom and joy. But when you lower them—when you declutter your life strategically—your happiness score rises. Not because you’ve added something, but because you’ve cleared space for it to actually exist.

Drama: The Emotional Vampire

Drama isn’t just petty gossip or shouting matches. It’s the low-grade hum of stress that builds up from unresolved tension, unclear boundaries, or the mental gymnastics we do to keep everyone else comfortable.

I once had a client who was constantly entangled in workplace politics. Every week, her emotions were hijacked by someone else’s crisis. We applied the Zero Life lens, and she started asking one simple question before engaging with anything:

“Is this mine to carry?”

That question alone shaved her drama score in half. She didn’t become cold or distant. She just stopped investing energy where it wasn’t yielding peace.

Action step:

Audit your last 7 days. Where did drama show up? Who or what caused it? Now imagine those moments gone. That’s the space you’re reclaiming.

Cost: The Silent Wallet and Time Killer

We often think of cost in dollars—but it also shows up in how we spend our time, attention, and energy. Think subscriptions you forgot to cancel. Meetings that should have been emails. Saying yes when your soul is screaming no.

The Zero Life Happiness Formula doesn’t just save you money. It saves your life’s capacity.

One man I worked with realized he was spending over 12 hours a week maintaining things he didn’t even enjoy—a boat, a side business, a networking group. His happiness formula was bleeding out through the “cost” variable. When he let go of those obligations, he didn’t lose status. He gained sovereignty.

Action step:

List your top 5 recurring time or money commitments. Would you say yes to each if you were starting from scratch today? If not, it’s time to start subtracting.

Responsibility: The Hidden Weight

Responsibility sounds noble, right? But let’s be real: not all responsibility is healthy. Some of it is inherited, assumed, or guilt-driven. And over time, it becomes invisible weight.

Maybe it’s being the emotional anchor in your family. Maybe it’s playing therapist to your friends. Maybe it’s saying yes to every volunteer role because saying no feels selfish.

The Zero Life mindset helps you differentiate between chosen responsibility and unconscious obligation. When they’re tangled, you burn out. When they’re untangled, you breathe.

Action step:

Ask yourself: What am I responsible for that no longer aligns with who I am or want to be? That’s your subtraction list.

What Happens When You Start Subtracting

Here’s the wild truth: Subtraction feels counterintuitive at first. Society trains us to acquire, accumulate, and achieve. But the real magic happens when we begin to unburden.

When you remove drama, cost, and unnecessary responsibility, something profound occurs:

• You sleep better.
• You laugh more easily.
• Your decisions get clearer.
• Your relationships become lighter.

It’s not a temporary high. It’s a fundamental shift in how you experience life.

Freedom Over Frills: The Real Goal

Let’s circle back to the keyword we’ve been dancing around this whole time—freedom.

See, happiness is great. But freedom? That’s the deeper desire. The freedom to choose your day. The freedom to feel peace without earning it. The freedom to not be owned by your calendar, your inbox, or your past choices.

And that’s the quiet revolution of the Zero Life approach. It gives you a system to earn back your freedom—not by hustling harder, but by removing what never served you in the first place.

This isn’t just a mindset. It’s a blueprint. And it’s designed for those who are tired of chasing happiness and ready to engineer it.

So, the next time life feels heavy, don’t ask what’s missing. Ask what needs to go.

Because true freedom doesn’t come from adding more to your life’s equation, but from subtracting the burdens that weigh you down.