Humans have a tremendous capacity for misery. This is deeply rooted in  the humans condition for good reason. This is what allowed us to go on living after experiencing WWI trenches and WWII concentration camps. Where we could put up with the worst of humanity and still go on living.

In today’s world, we will never face anything like those types of horrors, and yet our capacity for misery is still there – and we succumb to it. Think about it – time and again we hear stories of the 80 year old saying he didn’t live the life he wanted. Imagine being that 80 year old and for 60+ years not living a life true to yourself. Now that is misery. That is a unique kind of misery where day in and day out you are in a  slightly not happy state. Imagine this for 60+ years – dealing with this type of misery. Imagine never really doing what you wanted throughout your entire life, how empty that must feel.

The generation of keep on keeping on, and keep on trucking excelled at dealing with this type of misery – but we need a shift. This is not a call for shucking responsibility, as people love to do. This is a reminder for people to stop putting up with misery – ignore your capacity to be miserable. Instead, embrace a life that cultivates joy and leave misery where it belongs in the trenches.

“Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.“  T Ferriss .

I want to setup a life that has a built in back and forth. Leisure/work –  Concentration/idle thoughts. -Travel/home base – Security/vulnerability –  Luxury/hardship. It is the juxtaposition of these things that allows us to appreciate life. Every  person will have their own flavor of this concept and their own time frame for the right balance. It might be 2 weeks or 2 years but anything beyond basic needs for too long, not only makes the mind dull but it poisons our internal dialogue.  We have all heard about how too much of a good thing isn’t good anymore, but we need to stop only applying it to wine and chocolate. 

It is the balance that brings us joy.