Living a simple life is about paring back, so that you have space to breath. It’s about doing with less, because you realize that having more and doing more doesn’t lead to happiness. It’s about finding joys in the simple things, and being content with solitude, quiet, contemplation and savoring the moment.
Tag: happiness
Regret, Remorse, & Resistance
No matter what you choose to do, it’s possible to get stuck in the trap of believing you would have been much happier, healthier, and richer if you had taken the other path. We usually work very hard to avoid regret before making big decisions. “I could do this really practical thing over here, but I’ll regret it forever if I don’t try that really artistic thing over there.” The real work, however, begins after you’ve ran all those calculations.
How You Exercise Your Freedom
The “supreme” court is a bad joke. No human being and no group of five or nine human beings has any right to impose their preferences and beliefs on others. Their claimed authority—like all authority claimed over anyone other than oneself—is entirely fallacious.
A Guide to Letting Go of Shame & Fear
We allow fear to cause us to shrink from taking the action we want, or to make those actions less enjoyable. We allow shame to make us feel bad about ourselves and our lives, degrading our happiness and relationships. What would it be like if you were free of shame? How would you act if you were free of fear?
Internal versus External Boredom
The primary joy of life is to live out your own idea of fulfillment. Being seen as “the person who really knows how to have a good time” is optional. In your quest to follow your dreams, don’t get distracted by the need to convince everyone else that you’re a legitimate dreamer.
Freedom for the Taking
It is so rare as to be inconceivable that a person’s present condition cannot be traced back to a choice. Nor do I know of any cases of someone accepting total enslavement voluntarily.
State Capacity is Sleight of Hand
While good social outcomes all tend to go together, the state capacity literature fails to show that government is the crucial factor that makes all the others possible. Indeed, as far as I can tell, existing empirics are quite consistent with Sutton’s Law that people rob banks because “that’s where the money is.”
You Don’t Need to Make a Career out of Everything You Love
The people who tell you to “do what you love” have always been right. After all, what’s the alternative? Refusing to do what you love? Where you’ll go wrong, however, is if you make the mistake of equating “do what you love” with “find a way to get paid for every single thing you love or else you’re wasting your time.” Whatever you do, don’t do that.
Act with Devotion & Intention; Letting Go of Attachment to Outcome
Letting go of our attachment to the outcome is freeing. It helps us to be more present with the doing, the being, the act itself, rather than what might come in the future. It can help us have better relationships, because we’re more focused on the people than the goal.
When You Have a Voice Telling You You’re Inadequate
This week I had conversations with a couple of loved ones who struggle with an inner voice that tells them that something is wrong with them. It made me think about many years where I felt this sense of inadequacy, a deep sense of not being worthy. I still struggle with it sometimes. So what can we do when we have this inner critic, this voice inside us that doesn’t seem to feel that we’re worthy?