If you’re like anyone else, you’ve probably seen or watched one of the many abundant videos out there on “being happy.”
Countless books exist for teaching us “how to be happy.”
Do this, do that, and the keys to happiness will be yours!
In THIS video, the exact opposite is pondered.
What are the 7 steps to being unhappy?
Can you guess them? What are the 7 steps which, if followed, guarantee misery and suffering?
I probably caught you off guard here.
You might be able to guess one or two, but I doubt you can near-instantly think of 7 steps to unhappiness.
On the other hand, if I asked you for 7 ways to increase happiness, you could probably give me 20+ little ideas.
Define the Negatives to Avoid the Negatives
I love this video because it forces you to think creatively and consider the negative impacts of some actions which aren’t so often discussed in self-help.
Self-help, positivity movements, etc. all focus on the “positives.”
It’s all about focusing and doing the right things, without considering for the fact that doing the wrong things might fuck up the right things.
The wrong things never get discussed.
If you focus only on what to do right, you might forget what you’re doing wrong.
While focusing on the positives is generally better than avoiding the bad, it’s also important to define and avoid the bad.
This also motivates you further to do the good when you know which actions to avoid.
We all know “sleeping well” is important to health for example. If you define the negative aspects of sleeping poorly, you will be even more motivated to sleep well.
Build the Tank, Avoid the Mines
You can build a super powerful tank, but if you fail to avoid mines on your path, the extra armor will lose its power fast.
Building positive habits is like building a super strong tank- something you definitely should do.
But avoiding negative habits is equally important.
Continuously adding armor to a tank that keeps taking flak consumes a lot of time & energy, although it is possible.
This is a metaphor for you.
No matter how many great habits you have, if your sleep is shit, you’ll struggle quite a bit..
If you do everything right but still eat shit, happiness will certainly never be yours.
You can watch motivational videos, you can push harder, and you can do some fairly incredible things.
But wouldn’t it be easier just to fix your diet?
Cut Weight to Fly Higher
The whole point of me writing this is to help you define your hell, what you don’t want.
If you want to do great things, you will need to cut the extra weight holding you down.
Tell me what’s easier: making more balloons, or cutting the rope to the excess weight?
At a certain point, doing helpful things loses its strength. Avoiding the bad is just as important as creating the good.
Define failure so you know exactly which actions to avoid.
For example if you’re running a business, it might be helpful to write down the “10 items that guarantee my business will fail.”
A few of these items might include: not treating employees/clients/customers with care, not learning how to sell the product, and getting distracted with social media.
By defining what guarantees failure, you can better focus on what you need to do to succeed.
Conscious Awareness Re-focuses You
When you consciously know what guarantees failure, you’re more likely to avoid it.
You might know that messing with your attention by not working deeply is not good, but if you don’t know how bad it really is, you’ll lack the motivation to stay focused.
Define what good happens from staying focused, and the bad that happens from staying unfocused.
The next time you start getting unfocused, you’ll remember all the bad that can come of it.
The problem with most goals is most people don’t realize how bad certain actions are, so they instead chase the short-term pleasure.
In the example of getting distracted via social media, one might forget how detrimental it actually is to their work.
They know that working focused is good, but they don’t know that working distracted is bad.
The short-term pleasure overwhelms them, and so that gets chased.
If you know of the bad that comes by chasing the short-term pleasure, you’ll be much more likely to avoid it.
Define the bad so you know what to avoid, and how to re-focus on the good.
Hope you enjoyed. 🙂
What is the #1 way you can fail in an area of your life? Hit “reply” and let me know!
-Michael
