Lower Threshold for Joy
- We are already easily tipped into frustration, so work equally hard to be easily tipped into delight.
- Enjoyment is efficiency. The less grandiosity you need to feel good, the more happiness coins you get to pick up across your day.
- Challenge yourself: How little of a thing could happen to make your day?
- Refusing to take joy from mundane victories because they're insufficiently grand is like refusing a free ride to the airport just because you're getting on a plane when you arrive.
- Most people already have a high threshold for joy, so don't make it worse by feeling shame when little things make you smile.
Lower Threshold for Joy
- Lowering your threshold for joy doesn't just increase the amount of joy you experience, but it gives it to you immediately.
- Emotional robustness is tested by what brings you joy. A brittle happiness depends on big, impressive, and rare external circumstances lining up perfectly.
- You're already easily triggered into a bad mood by tiny inconveniences. Work equally hard to be easily tipped into delight.
- Ask yourself: How little of a thing could happen to make your day?
Mindful Chad Dilemma
- Men who are introspective and aim high struggle with feeling supported without feeling broken.
- They want to open up without being judged and believe they can achieve more without feeling inadequate.
- They desire recognition and appreciation for their suffering without being patronized.
- They want to aim high without feeling insufficient if they fall short.
- They want to achieve things but also stay present.
- Connecting is important, but too much can limit outcomes.
- Outcomes are important but not everything.
Right But Early
- Chris Williamson feels like he's 'right but early' on the declining birth rate problem and experiences resentment when people don't listen, referencing the burning of Troy as a metaphor.
- He hopes to be dead when the consequences of declining birth rates become apparent to avoid saying "I told you so."
- He notes that being right but early is bad across personal and political contexts, though he acknowledges he might be wrong about the birth rate issue.
- He uses Shopify as an example of getting to the market at the right time, stating it now powers 10% of all e-commerce companies in the United States, and has propelled brands like Gymshark and Skims to success.
Being Right Too Early
- Chris Williamson discusses the frustration of being right about a significant problem, such as declining birth rates, before others recognize it.
- He likens this situation to the burning of Troy, where warnings go unheeded until disaster strikes.
- He expresses a desire to be deceased if, in the future, people finally recognize the issue of declining birth rates and its economic consequences, to avoid the overwhelming urge to say "I told you so."
- He acknowledges that being right too early is a pervasive issue in personal and political spheres.
Reset After Mistakes
- Treat every iteration like it matters, then let it go.
- Don't focus on individual failures (one point, one mistake).
- Prioritize how quickly you reset and where you finish in the end, not present performance.
- Perfectionism kills happiness; it is an obsessive and ultimately futile attempt to avoid death.
- Back yourself, even at the start; your value exists now.
- Schedule worry time to manage overthinking.
Novelty and Intensity for Memory
- Your subjective experience of time is based on your memories.
- To ensure your brain remembers what you're doing, focus on novelty and intensity.
- When something new or intense happens, your brain holds on to all of it because it doesn't know what it needs to remember in the future.
Combatting Monotony
- Days move quickly as you get older because you can't remember them because you haven't done anything memorable.
- Monotony is the enemy of a well-remembered life. Slow time down by giving your brain a reason to pay attention.
- Say yes to new things and no to the same things to have more varied experiences.
Cost of Silence
- Acknowledge the cost of silence: We often focus on the negative consequences of making bad choices (errors of commission) but rarely consider the long-term costs of inaction (errors of omission).
- Recognize the timeline asymmetry: Errors of commission teach lessons quickly, while errors of omission teach lessons over decades, often too late to act.
- Pay attention to unseen pains: Focus on the potential regrets of not taking action: jobs never left, loves never dared, words not spoken.
- Silent mistakes cause real damage: While mistakes of commission bruise the ego, mistakes of omission starve the soul.