Fellow traveler,
For this week’s edition of The Joy List, I am sharing some pieces synthesizing some of the lessons we’ve learnt about happiness and wellbeing. You’ll also find an excerpt from one of the letters I look forward to annually - on how to clarify your thoughts.
I hope you find this useful.
With joy,
Damola
Worth reading
The habits that lead to happiness in old age
What if we had a “Happiness Pensions Account” that we can invest in when we are young and cash out when we're old? Just as financial planners advise clients to make retirement savings automatic and recurring, we can make intentional happiness deposits that will make old age much better. Where to start: Don’t smoke, limit drinking, maintain a healthy body weight, prioritize movement, practice coping mechanisms now, keep learning, and cultivate strong relationships.
“Teaching, like writing, has helped me develop and clarify my own thoughts. Charlie calls this phenomenon the orangutan effect: If you sit down with an orangutan and carefully explain to it one of your cherished ideas, you may leave behind a puzzled primate, but will yourself exit thinking more clearly.” (Culled from Buffett’s recent letter to shareholders)
A reverse bucket-list: the secret to happiness
“If an item is on your bucket list because it lines up with your deepest desires and values, keep it. If it's there to impress the neighbors or feed an amorphous and unquenchable need for "success" or validation, onto the reverse bucket list it goes.”
“The happiness paradox suggests if you seek to be happy, you’ll be less likely to accomplish it. Instead, you should seek to create the conditions associated with happiness, rather than pursuing happiness for its own sake. This is true because chasing happiness reminds you of what you don’t have (since you are pursuing it, after all) and it focuses you on your own needs, rather than those of others—and the opposite is linked with happiness. You’re more likely to experience happiness when you’re contributing to the needs of others, rather than yourself.”
“You don't need a turn of the calendar or a brand new day to give yourself a fresh start. You can do it right now at this very moment.”
Finally, do you also make these mistakes while listening?
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