Einstein's formula for happiness

[mrgoodstuff]

People need to be challenged and succeed on What is reachable for Their state and mind. That’s different per person, working on that and achieving is Happiness.

You should never the less be happy. If your doing what you should be doing no reason to be negative. Goals will always exist and after you reach them, new goals.

 

[BeExcellent]

Life also should become about choice after a while. In youth one has few responsibilities and obligations. Therefore the ability to pursue ambition and face risk is at its peak.

When one has nothing, nothing really matters and one has nothing to lose. That is the best season for ambition and risk. As one gains responsibility and obligations in life things slide along a continuum where risk must be managed in light of responsibility and obligation. At the far end of that continuum is either a prison of ideas and fear and paranoia and isolation, OR along the journey one has the realization that there is such thing as "enough" and one seperates from the pursuit of material wealth, status and so forth.

I have a plumber who forgets to bill me for his services for months. It's not uncommon that I get a bill 6 months after he does a job. He is content in his marriage, he & his wife take several river trips or fishing trips each year, he lives modestly, and he is never ever stressed out. Ever. How does he survive like this? He's done it so long and with everyone, and people pay him when the bill does come as its always fair. He has to remember the money part, he's so content. His home is paid for, so too his cars & gear & he is a simple man who is simply satisfied. He is always positive and he's an excellent tradesman.

He embodies the quote from the OP.

I'm younger than you Atom and I feel the pull toward contentment. Toward simplicity. Do I need to be a billionaire? Not really. I could get out of the rat race now and enjoy life and being a parent these last few years while my son is still home. More and more I am thinking very seriously about it. I already am home 50% of the time and very pleased when I'm here.

Just now making coffee and starting my day after a good night's rest and sleeping in. Next week I switch venues and go to my other residence and do my rat race half of the month. It's quite a contrast & gets me thinking about priorities. I plan to complete 12 months like this, and as I approach the year mark, I'm really looking closely at my options.

And I'm so very thankful that my ambition and hard work has created good options to choose from.

I do need to fund college. So there's that.

 

[Bible_Belt]

The only people who understand why I have a law degree but don't want to be a practicing attorney....are practicing attorneys.

 

[BeExcellent]

The only people who understand why I have a law degree but don't want to be a practicing attorney....are practicing attorneys.

My father would consider you a wise man Bible.

 

[Tenacity]

@Atom Smasher you will see that this thread will reinforce the points I laid out. You will notice how individuals will post some feel good, happy, Joel Osteen like stuff on this thread because their "intentions" are to make people feel better about their "lot" in life.

However, the reality is what I laid out. No matter if people label it too negative or what, the reality is that the vast majority of Americans (over 80%) will never be able to just "relax" in this environment. There's no job security, cost of living continues to rise, jobs that can support a family are diminishing by the numbers, family/marriage structures are in a Great Depression, and more.

But of course, you will notice those that respond will try to focus on people thinking "positive" and being "happy", which is nothing more than a FAKE smile.

 

[Bible_Belt]

There's no job security, cost of living continues to rise, jobs that can support a family are diminishing by the numbers, family/marriage structures are in a Great Depression, and more.

[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer[/URL]
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..."

 

[Tenacity]

[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer[/URL]
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..."

That line of thinking is what the Big Government/Big Business corruption players want you to think. They want you to think you are helpless and can't do anything to change this stuff, when you can. The first thing that needs to be done is more people need to be awaken to just what the hell is going on out here........the second thing is for there to be an uprising.

But they want to use things such as The Church and The Positive Thinking Movement to keep people believing nothing can be done or to just "have a Coke and a smile" while the POWER GROUP continues to screw you over.

Same goes for the piss poor market of women we talk about daily. We as Men could SHUT that shyt down at anytime if we just uprise against it and say enough is enough. MEN BUILT this country and men MAINTAIN this country. WTF are women really going to do? Feminism didn't win some WAR and thus, became the supreme culture in the land.......Men GAVE women Feminism as a "gift" and we can take that shyt back anytime we are awaken to do so.

 

[Atom Smasher]

The only people who understand why I have a law degree but don't want to be a practicing attorney....are practicing attorneys.

I have an attorney as a client and surprisingly he is one of the nicest guys I have ever known.
He practices elder law, and hardly ever finds himself in court. I’ve always thought that if I were ever a lawyer, I’d like to do it like he does. He takes care if the needs of families and virtually never has to involve himself in serious conflict. I’m sure he picks and chooses his clients carefully.

 

[Atom Smasher]

Same goes for the piss poor market of women we talk about daily. We as Men could SHUT that shyt down at anytime if we just uprise against it and say enough is enough. MEN BUILT this country and men MAINTAIN this country. WTF are women really going to do? Feminism didn't win some WAR and thus, became the supreme culture in the land.......Men GAVE women Feminism as a "gift" and we can take that shyt back anytime we are awaken to do so.

True. I only hope that a critical mass will develop enough to turn things around, but I fear that today's children are being so aggressively indoctrinated into feminine ideas that even if men make headway into reversal, these kids may just be spineless enough to roll over for the feminist agenda.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

@ImTheDoubleGreatest!
At your age it's only natural to "go out and get 'em", as the old saying goes. This is your time. As you mature, you start to get a deeper understanding into the balance of the pursuit of money and power vs. what really brings contentment to a man.

These are realizations that come later. When I was 18 I knew everything. At 60, I realize that I know almost nothing. But within that knowledge lies contentment.

I say give the pursuit of success everything you have when you're young. Hard work is very good for a man, and he should be rewarded for it. If he's not careful his hard work can become slavery, and that's when new realizations come into play. You're far away from that right now. Go out and attack the world. You will know it when you hit real burnout. These things can only be learned experientially. What can hasten relief from burnout after relentless striving is the echoes of old-timers like me who long ago said that it's only natural for a man to grow into the realization that the simpler things in life are far more meaningful and rewarding than the relentless pursuit of success.

It all has to do with age-appropriateness and seasons of life. You're in the season of hustle and do what you can to succeed, and that is perfectly appropriate.

I've had it all, and for me the most incredible thing in the world is to shape a piece of wood just right, or to work a piece of metal exactly the way I want it in order to restore a vintage machine. The satisfaction fro that far exceeds the satisfaction of going after that next deal.

LOL, I make myself sound like an old grandpa, when in reality, if you met me you would think I was in my 30s!

There's the old story of a reporter asking John D. Rockefeller, "How much money is enough money?" He replied, "Just a little bit more."

It is true that when you have enough money to have options in life, you have enough money. Life is definitely not about being able to acquire every single thing that you want. Possessions lose their meaning as you get older. They are an encumbrance, a thing to maintain and protect.

I would say to a young man, go out there and succeed with everything you've got. Along the way, learn to value the simple pleasures in life. It's so easy for the pursuit of wealth to consume a man, and for him to live in constant alarm because he still has to obtain that "little bit more". In my view, the key to happiness is seeking a reasonable balance between all aspects of life, and accepting imperfection.

Too soon old, too late smart.

I understand the concept of ‘the little things’ better than you might believe. I’ve strived for this actually, and for me, most of the time it involves other people with you on your journey towards accomplishing your major goals. Like say having to wake up really early for a morning practice; even though it sucks that you lost sleep, you got to talk to and have some funny moments with your bros on the team. Or at work dealing with crappy customers; yeah you are working to make money, but what makes it bareable is the fact that you can joke about with your coworkers and even your boss about how stupid some people are. Or say you and your friends are walking to a park to go play some soccer; the fun part isn’t messing around at the park (although it definitely still is fun nonetheless), it’s when you are walking towards it where one of your friends throws a water bottle at another one of your friends and it bounces off his head and lands perfectly upright on a tree branch. Stuff like that are what make things enjoyable. The problem is though, NO ONE my age understands this. I’ve been wondering why others don’t seem to take notice of these things like I have since I was 11 years old. And once everyone started getting their cellphones and began driving their cars, those moments no longer existed because things just moved too fast for people to want to be apart of them or even care or notice that they were there to begin with. This is why in the US there are so many more teens out there who are depressed than there were 20+ years ago.

I’m not burnt out per se, I’m just tired. I don’t understand how I can possibly get rid of my desire to want to share myself with others and have them want to do the same. It’s inhibitting me from moving forward at full force. I need to fix myself into having the mindset of no time for rest, only doing. That’s how I need to be like right now if I wish to ever come across those small things ever again. Yet at the same time, stuff like that is what makes the journey worth doing, and if I become the way that I need to, then I will no longer really care for those things either. And when time goes by and I’m old and feeble (if I don’t die beforehand) and I’m reminiscing about all my past memories and experiences, I won’t be satisfied because I won’t find those small things there anymore. Do you see where my dilemma comes from?

So as you can tell, I’ve already identified the problem a long time ago. I’ve tried fixing it since then, but *life* happens and I couldn’t make it out to how I wanted it to be. That tired me out to fall just short of my goals time and time again. Unfortunately, the time has passed for me to be able to accomplish that goal. Now I need to resort to plan B which is the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mindset, which only looks at the pursuit of success as the goal rather than any of the small stuff in between (which was apart the goal I had in mind previously). The problem is, because I worked so hard on my ‘Plan A’, I'm not sure if I even want to start back up again because I feel such a missing gap in my life that others were able to have. Logically, I know that this can destroy my life if I keep this up, but I’m mentally exhausted. I’ve already come to terms with what’s happened too, so I don’t need any condolences or pity or any of that crap. What I need is something else to give me motivation. I have none right now. I’ve asked numerous people time and time again how to completely get rid of this desire of ‘the little things’ as you call it, and from what I can tell it’s impossible unless you are in a survival situation and have a do-or-die mindset, which I lost about 2 years ago. I need to get that mindset back, or find another means of motivation. And if it’s motivation, it needs to be something other than anger because I’ve already used that as motivation so many times that now I can no longer get angry unless I start to dissociate from reality and black out or just pass out.

I apologize for the heavy stream of consciousness but it’s just been something that’s been weighing on my mind for a while and I can seem to pin down HOW I can do what I need to do.

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

“A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest."
Albert Einstein

Your thoughts?

Context is everything. Einstein wrote that AFTER he'd won the Nobel Prize, and was on the way to meet the Emperor of Japan. He was already famous, and KNEW that he would never need to worry about money.

It's easy to wax philosophical when you're rich and famous (which he was when he wrote that note).

This is the same dude that wrote a letter to President Roosevelt suggesting the United States build a NUCLEAR BOMB that ended up being dropped on two cities, destroying the empire of the EMPEROR he met twenty years earlier.

Of which, upon it's successful completion, Oppenheimer said the famous:

I am become Shiva destroyer of worlds.

 

[byers90]

I definitely agree on keeping things simple..the less complexity the better (such as keeping up the jones') but you still need to have aims otherwise it will be a very dull, unfulfilling life

 

[ChristopherColumbus]

Too many people are programmed what how to think. Even when critical of the mass, they are still in mass mind mode. One Dimensional Man, by Herbert Marcuse, is a good read in this respect.

 

[mrgoodstuff]

Good point, the issue is that there's so many rapid changes occurring in our society that it might be difficult for the majority of Americans to ever truly "relax".

- The job market is more retarded today than ever before. You have the effects of globalism and technology slashing jobs on one end, then on the other end, everybody has a damn college degree so the competition for the few GOOD jobs left is tougher today than ever.

- Starting a business today is easy (due to technology) but very HARD in terms of actual success. This is just due to the ever present competitive forces that are honestly carried over from the job market.

- Cost of living continues to sky rocket. Try having 2 or 3 kids today and making a regular middle class level of income which for two working people, would be around $70,000 - $90,000 in total coming into the household. They can NEVER relax on that level of income considering their expenses are very high.

Furthermore, 80% of folks are living paycheck to paycheck and I don't think it's because they are just that horrible with their money, I honestly believe it's because the COST of everything continues to go up while wages, job compensation, etc. are going DOWN.

It's by design and will be like that or get worse.

@Atom Smasher you will see that this thread will reinforce the points I laid out. You will notice how individuals will post some feel good, happy, Joel Osteen like stuff on this thread because their "intentions" are to make people feel better about their "lot" in life.

However, the reality is what I laid out. No matter if people label it too negative or what, the reality is that the vast majority of Americans (over 80%) will never be able to just "relax" in this environment. There's no job security, cost of living continues to rise, jobs that can support a family are diminishing by the numbers, family/marriage structures are in a Great Depression, and more.

But of course, you will notice those that respond will try to focus on people thinking "positive" and being "happy", which is nothing more than a FAKE smile.

Dude you can be grateful for what you have while you work towards more and be happy. It's not fake.

 

[guru1000]

“A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest."
Albert Einstein

Your thoughts?

Einstein was wrong, unfortunately. I'm sure he would agree with the following today:

Joy operates independently, and not consequentially, from "quiet and modest" or "unrestful pursuit of success." Neither brings more joy than the other. Joy is a state of mind and perspective that can be experienced with either or neither.

 

[Trump]

Context is everything. Einstein wrote that AFTER he'd won the Nobel Prize, and was on the way to meet the Emperor of Japan. He was already famous, and KNEW that he would never need to worry about money.

It's easy to wax philosophical when you're rich and famous (which he was when he wrote that note).

This is the same dude that wrote a letter to President Roosevelt suggesting the United States build a NUCLEAR BOMB that ended up being dropped on two cities, destroying the empire of the EMPEROR he met twenty years earlier.

Good point.

Life isn't about serentiy and being modest. Life is about preying on the weak and manipulating to get money and sex. These famous politicians and billionaires get lucky and then act like they invented the world.

If you want to be successful, put a on good face. But behind the scenes, manipulate, manipulate, manipulate, manipulate.

 

[Von]

How do you wanna fight the world if your home is messy and always in a fight itself?

Happy home, Happy life? Happy inner thoughts, Happy life, etc...

The quote talks of having a inner sanctum which is your own heaven of peace. It's from there you build... why? Because you have energy to build instead of fighting all the time the chaos in your mind, your body, your work, your home.

If you have one place where you can rejunevate your energy and set your mind straight... you good to go

Most people have a hard time living that.

Einstein family situation was a disaster: He cheated on his wife, the wife were afflicated of physical disease, some of his kids dissappeared from history (1 was born out of wedlock in 1905), 1 was put in a psychiatric hospital for dementia etc... Einstein himself couldn't deliver a letter to the mail box or knew his own house address... a joke was he would call the university direction secretary to ask her where he lives.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau dominated French phisophy and education system of the end 1700's to 1950's... yet his own 5 kids were put in youth protection programs... so much for the father of modern education.

etc. etc.

Everybody has issues and trouble... be we can all be good at something.. we find this something within a inner peace... calm.. area. How you wanna reflex on your self or meditate and think about how, why, where you going.... if you always running, always working and putting out fires.

Are we slave to the chaos? Or we take 1 moment to reflect on it all and advance.

So he was talking about his own experience and the value of a quiet life and a modest one... he's right but doesn't mean you shouldn't be GREAT and wealthy

 

[Atom Smasher]

It is true that our values tend to change toward Einstein's maxim as we age.

I recently moved out of a huge house into a more reasonably sized one. During the move I was shocked to realize all the crap I had accumulated over the years. It was a pain in the ass to move, and is a pain in the ass to store. My new thing is, "If it's not serving me now, throw it out". My stuff owns me, for sure.

The simple things are truly what give me great happiness and satisfaction these days, but that's because my life has always been extraordinarily complex. Just the other day I was out flying a kite with my girl, and tonight I started making an accent table for the living room. These are the simple pleasures of life that I love. I made my mark in computers and music. I'm totally sick of computers, but thankfully I still enjoy performing music.

It certainly does have to do with age, stages of life, and what one has already accomplished. Well, with a name like mine, it's little wonder that I feel an affinity with old Albert.

 

[Tenacity]

Dude you can be grateful for what you have while you work towards more and be happy. It's not fake.

What we have is joy, happiness, peacefulness, and relaxation. In my opinion, all four of these are "states of mind".

- But in order to reach these states of mind, the surrounding "matter" has to be controlled, streamlined, and organized. If the surrounding "matter" (environment, health, financial situation, family sitaution, etc.) is out of control, it's very difficult to achieve said states of mind if you in fact still CARE about these surrounding "matters" and have HIGH expectations.

- Now.....if you no longer care, have given up, or have very low expectations, it helps to achieve said states of mind. This is why you will see people like @Bible_Belt talk about the serenity prayer, it's his way of significantly reducing down his life expectations to a point where it's more possible to achieve said states of mind as long as you just have the very basics of life (health, food, shelter, some decent family/friends/love relationships, and the ability to have some form of recreation).

But someone like Tenacity, with HIGH expectations, it's hard for me to sleep at night if my quarterly sales numbers aren't where I wanted them to be, even though I'm making MORE income this year than ever before. If my expectations were LOWER (at a Bible Belt level) I would have more damn joy, happiness, peace, and relaxation right this moment than EVER before in my life. It's my HIGH expectations that make me rest-less.

 

[guru1000]

- What we have is joy, happiness, peacefulness, and relaxation. In my opinion, all four of these are "states of mind". But in order to reach these states of mind, the surrounding "matter" has to be controlled, streamlined, and organized. .

Faulty belief which leads to a faulty conclusion. We are referring to joyfulness or for purposes of this discussion, happiness.

Complacency <> Happiness

You could be ambitious and not at the destination, yet still possess a happy state of mind.

Another syllogism:

Tenacity + Ambitious + Unhappy <> Everybody + Ambitious + Unhappy

The variable here is Tenacity. Now that will be enough attention-whoring for this thread.