Stop trying to make decisions with happiness as the goal and instead choose the thing that has the most growth.

As humans we tend to be pretty terrible at guessing what is gonna make a future version of us happy.

So try this instead: Which choice is going to require a version of you that you most WANT to be?

Does a path require a fuller or more contracted version of you?

People who lead lives with happiness as the goal are typically the most miserable as they continually make choices aimed at comfort, ease, and temporary pleasure, and therefore find themselves stagnant and unfulfilled.

🚨Chasing happiness is a guaranteed way to put all your attention on an experience that only ever exists in the present moment and can’t actually be strategized for in advance!

You may want to argue with that point— “But what about the time I planned that thing exactly how I wanted it and it went perfectly and I felt so happy?!”

…. Luck. That was luck.

You could have gotten food poisoning or received news of a death in the family that day and all your planning would have been worthless. We can’t plan for happiness.

We can build capacity to feel,
we can build capacity for presence,
we can bring awareness to what meaning we make of things,
we can relax our bodies,
we can breathe more fully.
Those things we can do.

Those things make allow feelings of happiness to be more accessible.

Please don’t confuse this for advice that says choose hardship and endless striving. For some of you, choosing more rest and relaxation is actually the growth edge.

Growth does not automatically equal toil.

What do you think?
-C