#1: The happiness project 😊

Happiness, awareness, and meaning

Jul 26, 2021

Hi Everyone, thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. In this edition, I am sharing some of the best articles that have had the most impact on my life. These articles helped me question a lot of beliefs that I have been holding and I gained valuable perspectives about happiness, awareness, and the power of letting go. I feel very happy starting this newsletter and I want to share my happiness with you all, so, grab a coffee, get comfortable, play some lo-fi music, and enjoy edition #1.

Don't chase happiness. Chase meaningful projects
- Chasing happiness is a dumb goal because happiness is a mood. Moods are like the weather. Sunny days come and go; There won’t be sunshine forever. You can’t be permanently happy. Even if you NAIL your lifestyle, you won’t be happy for long.
- There’s a Nietzche quote: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how”. You need a project that gives you a sense of meaning. Fuck happiness. It’s too fickle.
- In a universe that has no meaning, we have to make our own. Otherwise, we have no reason to push through when sadness comes. And sadness will come.
Golden
- When I finally found certainty it was by turning away from other people and turning towards myself. I guess that’s how everyone finds confidence, in the end: through rejecting mimicry.
People aren’t what they represent to you, they’re only themselves.
- When I was a child I thought happiness might come from objects or from a proximity to privilege. I think that’s the message a lot of immigrant children absorb: solve for stability, solve for prestige. Then I grew up and met people who had solved for these things and wondered what it ended up meaning to them. It did mean something, but what it meant had so little to do with joy. I guess this is why people need God instead of intelligence or belongings or physical beauty: it turns out that when you consume the tangible things, they consume you right back.
Awareness
- Drop your false ideas. See-through people. If you see through yourself, you will see through everyone. Then you will love them. Otherwise, you spend the whole time grappling with your wrong notions of them, with your illusions that are constantly crashing against reality.
You are never in love with anyone. You’re only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person.
- It’s not that we fear the unknown. You cannot fear something that you do not know. Nobody is afraid of the unknown. What you really fear is the loss of the known. That’s what you fear.
Play to win
- If you want to win, recognize that your absolute level of skill is much less important than where you choose to compete. When success demands superiority, if you are not the smartest in the room, you’re in the wrong room
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle—when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” ~ African Proverb
How I read
- Two books on the same subject give you more knowledge than almost any reader because people don't read two books about the same thing.
- Pick a problem, and read clusters of five books to study that problem from a unique perspective. Visualize each cluster as an instrument to inspect the world. Collect instruments into a mental lab, with various stations for related instruments. You can upgrade the instruments one book at a time. Have your bookshelf reflect this mental image. Win the decade, not the day. Start now and never stop.

Question of the week: Are you listening for what will confirm what you already think? Or are you listening in order to discover something new?

That’s it for this week! Thank you for reading and I really appreciate your time and attention. Feel free to comment or shoot me a message if you found anything interesting in this edition.