The Dangers of Self-Improvement

Trying to change yourself can be dangerous. Implicit in doing so is self-conflict and non-acceptance, which create anxiety and paralysis.

When you’re in the right place, everything becomes effortless. Examine a moment when you were at your best. There’s a good chance you weren’t trying to be at your best. Instead of changing yourself, change your environment and your circumstances. Find the right fit, instead of trying to fit yourself to an ideal. Losing yourself to gain something is always a net loss.

Loss Aversion and Relative Happiness

Loss aversion: Your gain in happiness from getting $100 is less than your loss in happiness from losing $100.

Relative Happiness: A raise of $100 feels worse than how you felt pre-raise, if a co-worker with equal credentials gets a raise of $1,000.

Disgust

Be wary of what you label dirty or disgusting. It’s often just a way to justify horrible behavior.

Striving

Striving to have fun eliminates your enjoyment.

Striving to be charismatic dims your magnetism.

Striving to sleep prevents restful slumber.

Striving to appear high status makes you seem low status.

Striving to make friends pushes people away.

Striving to prevent mistakes creates more errors.

Striving to have others act makes them inert.

Roulette

Casinos display the last 50 roulette spins so that you look for patterns in randomness.

The odds don’t change though.

Living Wholeheartedly

Nothing ruins a moment more than remarking upon it. A good time ends as soon as you’re asked “are you having a good time?”

When in the midst of living life, it’s best not comment upon it. In fact, it’s best to say nothing at all.

Inflation

A way to hedge against inflation is to lock in contracts for things that you know you’ll buy in the future.

A baseball card is not necessarily a protection against inflation but buying forever postage stamps may be.