The Secret To Complete And Total Happiness

Posted on Posted in My Story

Don’t do things you hate.

It’s very simple. And simple is king.

Don’t do things you hate.

I am using the term “hate” in all it’s ugly strength and awfulness. We’ll always have to do things that we may not enjoy, or enjoy all the time. I’m talking about things that make you feel miserable. Things that keep you from getting out of bed in the morning. Things that you can find absolutely no interest in, and which in turn bore you to misery. Anything that makes you experience true dread.

Just don’t do them.

The secret to life is less finding what you love, than eliminating what you hate. Peel away the uninteresting, boring, and dreadful and you will find yourself left only with the okay, good, great, and awesome.

This isn’t easy, but it is not the naive, childish impossibility that many people consider it to be. It’s difficult because it means actually being introspective. It means blazing your own path and not always going with the safe and expected. It means living on your own terms instead of somebody else’s.

Don’t buy into the idea that you have to trudge through the mud in order to get to something that you enjoy. Whether it is school or some entry-level position, if you hate the journey you will probably hate the destination.

Hating the process of learning how to do what you want to do but then loving what you want to do it is a contradiction. And, as Ayn Rand says, contradictions cannot exist. Check your premise.

If you hate the path to your supposed dream job, I foresee two problem areas for your premises:

It isn’t your dream job.

You think it is because you think it will look impressive, make you a lot of money, or someone who you admire/look up to is doing it. You don’t need to know what your dream job is. It’s fine if you think you know what it is but get it wrong. But don’t use the idea of achieving your “ultimate profession” as justification for hating your current day to day life. It’s a waste and will probably not get you where you want to go.

It is your dream job, but you are going about it the wrong way to make it a reality.

This one can be tricky. This is because a mixture of state regulation and common assumptions can make it so that you have to use a particular method to learn a career or you will be barred from joining that profession. Think any job that requires a license, or employers requiring a college degree even when the actual value gained from achieving that degree is minimal. But if you can help it, rethink your methods if you are sure the actual job/career is something you like, but you hate the process of learning how to do it.

The journey of learning and growing–life in general–is difficult. There will be obstacles that you don’t like overcoming and there will be days when you do not enjoy what you are doing.

But the overall feeling should be interest, excitement, enjoyment, and fun.

Don’t sacrifice any of those things for money.

Don’t sacrifice them for some idealized-future that probably will never come to pass.

You will find that when you have a goal you are excited about and working towards, any sacrifice of present, fleeting fun isn’t really a sacrifice at all.

Don’t do things you hate.

 

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