Good morning!

Here's your Saturday 7 roundup! Special Edition on Happiness :)

📵 How I re-gained happiness:

At one point last year I got frustrated. Often, at the end of the day, I felt like I had worked hard but accomplished little. Like running hard on a hamster wheel and getting nowhere.

I audited my time and noticed a big problem. 

The percentage of "reactive work" (directed from the outside-in) was trending up and crowding out "deep work" (directed from the inside-out). 

I'm happiest when I'm lost in creative, builder-mode, type work. But far too much of my time was spent replying to emails, responding to DMs, and getting pulled into comment sections. 

So I did an experiment. I gave myself a rule that for 30 days I was NOT allowed respond to any unsolicited message. This was hard. For years I'd replied to just about every email, DM, comment, and request. 

But becoming unreachable for 30 days yielded big benefits: 

• My time freed up. 
• My work output soared. 
• My happiness returned.

You need to do at least a bit of what you care about now, as opposed to banking on finding time for it in the future, once the decks are clear and life’s duties are out of the way. Life’s duties will never be out of the way. And so if you really mean it when you say you’d like to write a novel or spend more of your time with your ageing parents...at some point you’re just going to have to start doing it. — Oliver Burkeman

🔎 How to find ride it:

How to find happiness: think like a surfer.

When the surfer rides a wave, he enjoys the moment, with full understanding it won't last long. But he also knows another wave will come along.

The surfer knows that most of the time is paddling and waiting. He is patient. He prepares.

The surfer knows he doesn't have to ride every wave. He's selective. He lets some waves pass and chooses his wave. 

The surfer knows if he sits on the shore he is guaranteed not to catch a wave. So even though he may fall or get crushed by a wave, he knows that's the price of playing. The more he plays, the better he gets at weather storms and staying on the board. 
 

🌊 What even is it:

What is happiness?

It's predictable. It's unpredictable. It's the waves, the peaks, the troughs.

💡 What to ask:

This is the most important question you're probably not asking. 

Q: What would you do if you HAD to work on something for the next 10 years, but you could choose ANY work, and regardless of the work, all your financial needs were taken care of for life?

A: [your answer goes here]

Now go do that thing! 

🧠 What quote I've been thinking about:

“People are always looking for happiness at some future time and in some new thing, or some new set of circumstances, in possession of which they some day expect to find themselves. But the fact is, if happiness is not found now, where we are, and as we are, there is little chance of it ever being found. There is a great deal more happiness around us day by day than we have the sense or the power to seek and find.”

– Thomas Mitchell, on finding happiness

📊 Does it matter:

Forbes' list of the richest person in every state.

But are they happy??

Happiness does correlates with prosperity, or probably better put, the freedom that prosperity enables.

But I think it has little to do with how much you have, and a lot more to do with how much you appreciate what you have.

🏆 Why does Finland always win:

Why Finland always tops the world's happiest countries list.

As always, it's an absolute pleasure and honor getting to spend some time with you, hope you have a great weekend!

Kevin

P.S.

A rare smiley face recently lit up the night sky. 

Dr. Kevin Stock
Meat Health, LLC

NED LLC (The Snore Solution)
 

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