On Happiness (if you want it)
Estimated read time: 1 min & 24 secs
Hello, dudes and dudettes.
It seems like depression is on the rise (at least in the U.S.).
People are getting less and less happy.
Now, the word happy is pretty broad.
Like, when someone asks, “Hey, are you happy?”
I don’t know whether they are talking about my mood in the present moment, or they are talking about how I feel about my life in general.
In this email, we’re talking about the 2nd type of happiness — how we feel about life in general.
How can we increase our happiness?
I found this simple list created by Naval Ravikant:
“Happiness (if you want it):*
Meet basic needs
Avoid cheap dopamine
Leave the past alone
Limit desires to ones achievable at the edge of your capability
Find something beyond yourself (mission, children, God)
*Most people want something else.”
If you spend a minute to really think about this list, it’s kind of profound.
What the hell is cheap dopamine?
Most things on Naval’s list are pretty self-explanatory, but what is cheap dopamine?
The word “dopamine” here refers to the sense of pleasure we feel when do something enjoyable.
Therefore, “cheap dopamine” refers to activities or things that give you a short burst of pleasure, but don’t make you feel that great about yourself in the long run.
Some “cheap dopamine” activities include eating A TON of snacks, scrolling through social media, and binge-watching TV shows.
I’m not saying don’t do those things.
I'm saying that if your life is FILLED with “cheap dopamine” activities, things that give you pleasure without much effort, you will run into problems.
Over the long term, it can really mess up your brain's neurochemistry.
You'll start to get less and less pleasure from the usual things in life.
And then you're like, “Man, life sucks.” But no, dude, it's not life. You probably messed up your neurochemistry by then.
So yeahhh. Try to limit your “cheap dopamine” activities.
Maybe the key to a happy life is moderation.
It’s hard, but you gotta start somewhere.
That’s it for this email. Peace out!
-George 🐙
This list is pretty good. I imagine we all struggle with all 5 in different ways at different times. Thank you for sharing, and for explaining #2 a little bit. 8^)