“99% of your time is spent on the journey, and what kind of journey would it be if you don’t enjoy it”

Naval Ravikant

So much of it is spent on the journey. So much.

We play these games. The Status one. The Money one. The Courtship one.

They don’t quite feel like games when we’re losing… or rather, maybe just as long as we haven’t won yet. We’re stuck on the wheel. We just keep Squid-Gaming it without realizing it. We keep playing.

The neat part is that the Happiness Game comes with wildly different outcomes. It’s up to us to find the prize. It’s a choose your own adventure.

The other neat part is that it’s played strictly against ourselves. At the end, nobody gives a rats ass if you won or not… they’re too busy trying to win their own happiness game. Nobody cares about the money or the status or the winds or losses or how you did. Nobody. Nobody but you. Because you’re the one who has to deal with the regrets.

People care only insofar as it affects them. Not a bad thing, though. We’re inherently selfish. And that’s fine. It’s the only way we find a life we want. It’s the only way we live at all, actually. The Human Ego is a powerful bastard. And we must yield.

So I guess this Happiness thing is inherently selfish. We’ve each got the homework assignment to discover our own individual joys. And we’ve got the other homework to find the courage to keep doing those things despite our neighbors working another job, and our friends studying a different subject. The Project to find Joy is ours alone to tackle.

And the Final Project isn’t due until our deathbed. We don’t find what grade we got in the game of life until it’s already over. We’re either fulfilled or full of regret.

On a day to day basis we know if we’re doing things that bring us joy. Or rather we feel it. That part has taken me some time to sort our myself.

Our days are a feeling. And they either feel good or they feel bad. But we don’t know until we pay attention and find the confidence to actually listen.

We know if we like our jobs. We know if we’re not in fulfilling relationships. We know if our souls feel full in our free time.

If not conscious, our bodies know. They know how they feel. It’s just up to us to see if we listen. And that takes courage.

Courage, I say, because sometimes it’s terrifying, at least from my own, and my friends’ experience. Because sometimes the thing or person me might need distance from could be disastrous. And yet, all we’ve got is how we feel.

They call the gut “The second brain” for a reason. Ask me that ‘reason’ from a scientific perspective, I’ve got no damn clue. But I do know that our bodies are smarter than we think.

They tell us when they’re stressed and need decompressing. They tell us when they’re angsty and to be walked. They tell us when they’re lonely and need people.

We think our big brains are sooo smart though. We don’t spend enough time actually listening to the meat sacks that are carrying them around. Fortunately though, that shit’s been evolving for millions of years. They’ve got a thing or two figured out.

I don’t blame our brains either. Why? Frankly, it’s easier.

It’s easier to do what the others are doing. It’s easy to walk from point A to point B because that’s what the others are doing. It’s easy to pick up the hobbies and play the sports and get the jobs our family/friends want us to… because they want us to. And we. are. social.

We want to be social, and to feel included. And status makes is easier to fit in. So it’s no wonder we chase the accolades. That means we fit in, right? The praised and back-pats for the ‘oh so special work you do’. Feels good right?

Not if the work itself doesn’t.

“99% of your time is spent on the journey, and what kind of journey would it be if you don’t enjoy it”
Naval Ravikant

Yin and Yang

And I fear it’s exacerbated in the West. We’ve developed this incredibly efficient machine. We call it Capitalism. It’s built things that potentially no other system on Earth could have. Amazon. The iPhone. McDonalds (k maybe not so good).

But we’ve got to understand the pros and cons of every system because one is never present without the other. There’s good and evil in all. And a potential drawback with ours is that we are hell bent on making the Dollar.

Not only does the natural hierarchical structure of humans (and animals) drive our desire for status, our economics reinforces the same idea.

If we are not deliberate about passionate work and hobbies and purpose and community… our biology takes priority. And our Feel Good takes a dive.

In the words of Harvard professor Arthur Brooks “Mother Nature doesn’t care if you’re happy”. She wants us to accumulate resources and pass on our genes.

Fortunately though, we’ve escaped the food chain. We no longer live in immediate danger of death. We aren’t catching gazelles in the Sahara or krill in the ocean. Most of us don’t living meal to meal.

We’re afforded the luxury of some enjoyment in our lives. And we’re doing a disservice to those that came before if opt to live in Purgatory. Dishwashers and frozen dinners weren’t designed for us to save more time to spend more time wasting time.

Happiness is a choice.

That’s what it is after all – it’s an option. We have the choice to choose to enjoy this Life thing or not. Harder than it sounds. But without the deliberate decision, we don’t stand a fighting chance.

None of it matters in 1000 years. We’ll all be long gone. Scratch that, a hundred years. None of our choices, decisions, successes or failures will matter then. We’ll be gone.

So I guess might as well enjoy while it lasts, right?
Or don’t. It’s your life after all.

Do what you want.

“If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing… which is stupid!”

Alan Watts

Resources:

• (4 min) What if Money Was No Object by Alan Watts (discovered on Whole Incredible True Story by Logic)
• (4 min) Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
• (1 min) “In 100 years, all new people“
• (3 min) Follow Your Arrow by Kacey Musgraves