Happiness extends your life. When we are children, the parents make our happiness. “It is very easy to become so absorbed in our own pursuits, our own circle, our own type of work, that we forget how small a part this is of the total human activity and how many things in the world are entirely unaffected by what we do,” Russell writes. These moments of worldly appreciation show you there is more to life than what you see in your tiny personal sphere. Stop thinking you have all the answers, get over yourself, and be open to the experience of life. But too much effort will backfire. If you’re only studying for an in-demand job that exists today, what happens when that job gets replaced by robots in 10 years? But if you’re still struggling to make lemonade when life hands you lemons, maybe you just need a little swift-kick-in-the-pants motivation. Niebuhr laid out the Christian principles in his prayer. By resigning yourself to the things you can’t control, you’re able to put forth effort in the things that do matter. It suggests you’re resigned to some unfortunate fate, and you can’t help yourself out. It just became part of my daily routine. The days blurred into each other. In the Conquest of Happiness, published in 1930, Bertrand Russell examined the reasons why so many people seem anxious, upset or depressed in the early 20th century. The Last Lecture series was inspired by Dr. Randy Pausch’s final lecture, which shared everything Pausch wanted his children to know before he died of pancreatic cancer. May 04, 2016. We all need to meet needs like food, water, shelter, income and just doing something productive with our days. You may be resigned to the fact that you’re going to die. Zest was originally a culinary French word that means “the peel of an orange or a lemon.” The zest for life is seasoning; the flavoring that makes something enjoyable. That’s a nice sentiment that fits well in a tweet. He said that every person should do three things before they die: Plant a tree, write a book and make a baby. Don’t feel like you have to conform to a certain image because of society’s expectations or social judgement. Russell then goes on a rant against higher education, which has in his opinion become to specialized on training and skill acquisition, rather than “enlargement of the mind and heart by impartial survey of the world.”. The opposite of effort, for Russell, is resignation. Add some zest! Who wants a bland life? Log in, Gretchen Rubin’s “Happiness Project Toolbox” – The Pathway to Creating Your Own Happiness », How to make money from a sports blog start-up, Five Ways Small Businesses Can Pivot In Response To COVID-19, 3 Best Digital Marketing Books Your Moving Company Needs to Read. “I wanted to be like really nice so that they would have a hard time hating me,” he said. (My 7-year-old daughter is reading this over my shoulder as I type this right now, and tells me that “sucks” is a bad word. “Adventurous men enjoy shipwrecks, mutinies, earthquakes, conflagrations, and all kinds of unpleasant experiences, provided they do not go so far as to impair health” Russell writes. In other words, create. Take death, for example. 1961 Bruce Rosenstein Life can be pretty stressful most of the time and it gets difficult trying to be happy when you feel like there’s absolutely nothing to be happy about. They may not provide happiness as you’re studying them, but over time they can provide perspective. You’re not very likely to find that key insight or breakthrough idea north of the 14th hour. Happiness and health are thus a two-way causal street. It means accordance with the harmony of nature, as the planets revolve effortlessly.