This is an improve version I sent a 2 months ago titled: How to be happy in a world full of unhappy people. 

Let’s start—

I've been reading about The Almanack of Naval Ravitkant and one thing I've noticed is: Naval is both rich and happy.

Most rich people are unhappy.

Take Alex Hormozi for example. He has a net worth of over $200M. But he clearly is unhappy at the moment, no offense but it's clear why.

He rarely goes out to meet his friends and family. Works 7 days a week for over 16 hours a day. That's admirable honestly. But clearly it's not because he loves his work. And that's something I want to talk about today.

(I watch his content almost daily and I don't hate Alex. On contrast I actually like his lessons)

I want you to understand the difference between just the goal of getting rich and the goal of being both happy and rich.

And the difference between purpose and productivity.

The Default State of Humans

Our minds are wired for survival and necessity.

We are not built to be happy and peaceful. That's why people kill, plunder and raid villages in the medieval times for the sake of survival or just sadistic pleasure.

Happiness is a skill you learn. Once you earn people (who makes you happy) and what (hobbies & skills you love doing).

Buddha said desire is the root cause of suffering. Nietzsche said suffering is the catalyst for greatness.

Both are right. It's a paradoxical situation which both are correct yet wrong at the same time.

Something many people cannot see.

Because black and white thinking is the norm. People cannot think in terms of gray and blue.

Gray thinking is being able to see what something means between 2 polar opposite examples.

It's the ability to see truth and find out whether it will serve you or not.

This will be hard to understand but bear with me. This is where it gets deeper.

Why It's Hard To Be Happy

Like Naval said—I disagree with some points he said.

I think happiness comes when you understand what it means to be grateful.

To know and appreciate the present moment and what you have.

A lot of people are entitled and ungrateful. They complain endlessly, make drama out of nowhere and find pleasure sabotaging other people.

Something a lot of people witness but uncapable of articulating.

We are not creatures of logic. So cultivating the ability to manage your emotions and not listen to your thoughts like it's gospel is—something you should have if you struggle with overthinking.

Most people live their entire lives triggered, hating people who don't exist and being sad for problems they can't solve.

That's why I preach journaling and meditation. It's always the ones who have the least self-awareness that's the most negative, most critical and cynical of all.

They just don't understand how their existence is a poison.

Whatever we imagine—whatever we visualize in our mind— our body thinks its real.

That's why something like anxiety is so painful because we truly feel like its real right now - when we get an anxious thought of something that could happen - our body reacts and put us into fight or flight mode, our cortisol kicks off, our blood spikes.

What we imagine our body believes its real.

That's why people who have social anxiety tend to become worse with social skills because their mind bullies them and whatever scenario or thoughts their mind makes up—they believe as real even if its not.

The same goes to having friends. Be with the positive ones. F*ck the jealous and negative ones.

Your life quality goes up when you cut off people who have the loser and crab mentality. As I've told in the letter :How to Protect Your Peace by Cutting Out Toxic People and Building Better Relationships (In email it's titled: How to Deal with Assholes (Cut Them Off)

Productivity And Purpose

Productivity is getting things done that will help your future self.

Purpose is actualizing your potential with your deepest inclination that gives you joy and fulfillment.

Many people seek productivity over purpose.

What I like to emphasize is this—you can be great at anything—even on the things you hate.

The problem is—if you're doing something you don't like you'll hate your self and life.

You can be the top 1 salesman in your company but if you always wanted to be an artist—there will always be conflict in your mind.

One way for you to become consistently happy is to do something that feels like play.

To quote Naval: "Do what feels like play to you, but work to others"

I'm not against productivity because I'm a workaholic myself. I work almost 12 hours day if I just let myself be.

However from what I've learned—life shouldn't be miserable. We already have too many problems that we can't solve, so making our lives worse than it is—is pointless.

Personally I'm a jolly person. There's no merit to being unhappy when the world can end at any second. I live life with meaning and I enjoy it.

I don't have my dream life right now —but the thought of me working hard for what I want out of life brings me joy. And I'm pretty ruthless about my peace of mind.

I've cut off a lot of people unapologetically and deal with assholes effectively.

That's why I'm using Naval Ravitkant and Alex Hormozi as an example. I'm sure Naval used to be like Alex back when he was young.

And I can see that he's sharing all of this life lessons like a lesson for his younger self.

I've understood that we have phases in life. We cannot jump to stage 2 without experiencing the 1st stage.

On another note getting rid of your bad habits is and replacing them with good habits is also a skill that increases your happiness.

This is what "Live Intentionally: 90 Day Self-Improvement" helps you with. This product is one of the best purchases you'll make in your life if you're serious about change.

How Positive and Negative Thoughts Work With Each Other

We tend to reject and deny negative thoughts but that's wrong.

What you have to do instead is to observe and let thoughts flow freely without denying or believing any of it to be real or true.

Because our thoughts can either become demons who constantly try to harm us or become our guardians that may save us in time of tough situations through wit and instinct.

I've cultivated my gut instinct to a level where I can detect if people secretly hate or despise me. And it has helped me avoid a lot of unnecessary drama and problems.

You can only appreciate life once you see how good your life is compared to other people.

Comparing is bad but that's how we can see if we've got it better or not.

There's someone out there that doesn't have a feet and needs to use a wheelchair to travel.

There could be someone out there who can't see. They'll never be able to read books or see what their families look like.

Do you not see what I mean? You can only appreciate the positive once you understand the negative.

Learn to meditate so you'll understand what I mean.

Gratitude Journaling to Change The Default Mind

This is something I learned from Hamza Ahmed. Everyday I write out a whole paragraph about what I'm grateful for.

Yesterday I wrote out how I'm so grateful I started to write. Not only has it allowed me to put my thoughts into reality—it's also helping other men improve their lives.

I recommend you start this today. It literally takes just takes a minute to write out what you're grateful for.

For example:

"I'm grateful for writing today's letter. Not only am I able to articulate my thoughts properly after years of experience and practice—other men who need this advice will get to read it too. And because this get to read this advice they'll be able to not repeat the same mistakes I did and other people did. Which saves time and problems'

The Improvement Letter is practical. So I'm leaving you with the task today with starting the habit of gratitude journaling.

Forcing your mind to become grateful is one major skill of happiness.

Our mind's default state is full of anxiety and worry.

Our ancestors fought death everyday so it makes sense for us who are the descendants to have the same instinct and mentality as theirs.

But we live in the modern world. We aren't living the medieval times anymore fearing we might get invaded and killed in anytime.

The paradox of happiness

While happiness is a skill I also think factors outside of our control also affect our happiness.

If you are in the middle of a war and you weren't even involved in any conflict yet your caught in the middle of it—I think it's fair to say—you are not going to be happy because you can die any time.

That's also to say if you are broke and jobless—you are going to be stressed because you see your friends making money, getting promoted while you stay stuck.

Happiness comes when you pursue life quality. But pursuing the wrong things can give you pleasure not happiness.

For happiness is a spiritual state of mind, while being rich or wealthy is physical state. Our minds filters everything.

Not saying you shouldn't aim to get rich however your mind needs to know and understand what happiness is.

For some, they are only happy if they can achieve their goals. For others they can become happy just by being with their family alone.

Though I do think everyone is full of ambition and being a mediocre person will always make 90% of the population unhappy.

For greatness is always strived no matter the reason.

That's all for this week.

Reply "goat" if you liked today's letter.

-Noat

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