happiness

When I say you’re not getting your joy back, I mean that you’re looking in the wrong direction. What brought you joy in the past might not be what brings you joy in the future. And looking to recreate the past holds the risk of speedrunning you right back to the present. So when you say that you now loathe what you used to love that might be your... See more

“human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others. These values are considered "intrinsic" to human happiness and far outweigh "extrinsic" values such as beauty, money and status.”

It is probably the case that, somewhere in the past, you did something that made you more happy/productive/fulfilled, but you don’t do it anymore, for no good reason. Think about that, and do it again, preferably instead of one of your less desirable behaviors.

Contrary to what we might expect, the study found that the link between economic growth, as measured by GDP per capita, and life satisfaction weakened as countries became more affluent. In other words, once a certain economic threshold is reached, additional wealth does not significantly boost happiness.

While doing the reporting for my book, I read a postmortem from a successful startup founder. They said something along the lines of: “One of the best things that can happen to you is to achieve professional success when you’re young. That way you can learn that it does little to change your happiness.” For better or worse, achieving your goals

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