Been thinking that outside of one’s main job (that pays the bills), one should work on things that are timeless.

(a short thread on this)

1/ Think of happiness as not one emotion, but rather a label for a set of emotions.

Sometimes we’re happy that we ate the ice cream, other times we’re happy about the oncoming trip and sometimes we’re happy about finishing a project that took some work.

2/ In that sense, rather than chasing “more happiness”, consider creating “portfolio of happinesses”.

Do things that increase the variety of types of happiness you can experience.

3/ One’s main job is always about the here-and-now. You get paid for the value you create and you feel happy and worthy about it.

You can call this the “in the moment” happiness.

But what about “reflective” happiness?

4/ What about the fact that if all you’ve had is “in-the-moment” happiness, when you look back at the long arc of your life, all you find is fleeting moments of happiness?

5/ We all recognise that there’s a happiness in doing things that matter in the long term.

Think kids, inventions, art, music and so on.

Creation of these things give a different kind of happiness because we know they’ll outlive us.

6/ A Classic mistake with advice on how to be happy is to think in binary.

Pick one:

a) Be here-and-now. Enjoy the present moment

b) Minimize future regret. Work on things that matter

But why should you pick one?

Why not pick both?

7/ You can pick both and just like picking two stocks instead of one, you can make your portfolio of happiness less volatile.

In your job, work on something that grounds you to the present moment.

But outside it, consider building something you’d be proud of 50 years from now.

8/ That’s it.

Are you building something that’s timeless?