907: How To Experience Happiness Every Day feat. Socrates

Socrates once said:

“I consider there to be nothing better than trying to improve the way you live, and that there is no greater pleasure than the feeling that you are indeed improving the way that you live. It’s a happiness which I have never stopped experiencing.”

Today, I am unpacking this quote so that you can EXPERIENCE happiness every day. 

Transcript

1:30

Alright. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. I wanna read to you. A quote that I read from Socrates today, and I, I don't like, I'm not one of those guys who's just gonna read a quote and be like, I wanna sound smart today. So I'm gonna quote something from Socrates or Epictetus or the Da Ching. No. If it's something that's things in my soul and I can't get away from it, I'm gonna share it with you. Because this is, this is what this is. This, this podcast is an expression of how I see the world, and I lay it out there in hopes that you can pick up something and apply it to your own life. So let me read what Socrates wrote, and I didn't even get around to my random reading today. I read this, I was going on to something else. I'll probably sit in the sauna today and, and read randomly. Uh, but I just, I couldn't, man. I had to, I had to come back to it. So lemme read it to you. He said, I consider there to be nothing better than trying to improve the way that you live. And there is no greater pleasure than the feeling that you are indeed improving the way that you live. It's a happiness, which I've never stopped experiencing. It's hit me hard, man. Notice what Socrates said. He didn't say he was gonna be happy all the time. He said that he was experiencing happiness. And bro, there's a big difference in that. See, happy is a feeling, but the problem with feelings is they're temporary. They're mercurial, and they come and go. So we all know that we're not always gonna feel happy. Just like you don't always feel angry or sad. One minute, you're cool, you're happy. The next minute, I mean like seconds later I'll be in a state of dread. I'll be pissed off about something and it's like, well, what happened? So you're not always gonna be happy. Duh, we all know that. But let me shed some light. And I was thinking about this, this, this morning. Happy is a feeling, happiness. Is a state, it's a conditioning. So for happiness, it's a direction, not a destination. And when you can look at happiness as a direction, not a destination, it puts a different, mindset on that. Happiness is not someplace that you arrive and live in forever. It's a way of living, and it's something that you do every single day. It's a condition, it's a state of mind. It's an alignment of how you live and practice. It's not something, set it and forget it. It's a journey that you're on, and when you can look at happiness, see happy, you're gonna have just like angry and sad, you're gonna have moments that you're happy and then something's gonna happen. Some external force is gonna rob you of being happy, but you can always experience happiness. See, happiness isn't passive. It's conditional, just like strength training. See, when you train your body. It is not all feel good moments. I just got finished working out. I was not happy going, I was dreading it Sunday. I was like, eh, I don't know. And then you start negotiating with yourself and like, man, just go do it. So you know when you're, when you're strength training. There is gonna be resistance, there is gonna be exertion, there is gonna be, I don't feel happy. It's not, it's not the, the, I'm not happy in the moment, but I'm happy with the results in the end. But see, through that exertion, man, through that strain, this is what gets you stronger both mentally and physically. So when I go to the gym, I'm getting stronger both physically and mentally because there is the physical exertion, but there's also, I gotta fight against the mental exertion, which is why I have to go to the gym. I can't work out at home. The physical, the mental exertion is where I want to give up. I want to do fewer reps. I want to find an easier path. I want to take the five pound dumbbells, not the sixties. But see, I understand that straining, that pushing myself. That's a conditioning and just like you condition your body through movement and resistance, you also condition your life through daily improvement. So no, you're not always gonna feel happy during the process. There will be days of frustration, there will be days that you want to give up. There will be fatigue, there will be stress, absolutely DE, all of the above. Check the box. But afterwards. You got that pride, man, you got it done. And there's a real payoff over time. You can see the results. That's the experience, the conditioning of happiness. It's what it is. And in the same way, you're not gonna feel happy all the time. But you can condition yourself through the exertion, through the frustration, through the strain. Again, happiness is a direction, not a destination, and so I'm conditioning myself in that direction to always experience happiness. Notice this in the quote. Socrates said, I never stopped experiencing happiness. I found that really interesting and I didn't realize that until I wrote it out. That's why I say you gotta write out some of these things that kind of mean something to you because you may read something and then when you write it. Game changer. So notice this, he said, I never stopped experiencing happy Notice. He didn't say, I always feel happy. He said, I never stopped experiencing happiness. Well, that made me wonder, why did he write the word experience instead of feeling well? Feeling is fleeting right off the top, but experiencing. So I looked up what does experience mean? Experience means. That you're building skills, that you're gaining knowledge, that you're also practicing acceptance. So when you're experiencing happiness, you're positioning yourself mentally and emotionally for what's next. It's a positioning, so it's conditioning yourself. Through skills, through knowledge, through acceptance that there will be hard days. But on those hard days, you learn how to handle it. And on your great days, you don't get all high and mighty thinking that you've arrived either. Either you're gonna have both. And see, that's the resistance. You think that you're gonna get to this place of doing really well. You're gonna be like, oh, okay, I can just let up. No, you're always gonna have that resistance because if you're not continuously living to improve every single day, knowing, like Socrates says, knowing that I'm improving every day, meaning that I'm move, I'm pushing the needle in five areas of my life, there are five core pillars, faith. Family, finances, fitness, fulfillment in those five areas. Am I do I know through improvement that I'm just trying to get better, better in each one of those areas. That's what I'm talking about. It's a condition. So with these five areas, faith, dude, you gotta live outside of certainty. This is why I say. This is the core. The core meaning of what's your problem. There are three problems we face in life, all of us adversity, uncertainty, and complacency. And you need skills to handle the adversity, embrace the uncertainty, and never settle again. This is what Socrates is saying. So in the faith component, you gotta get outside of certainty. You gotta get outside of a sure thing. Otherwise, bro, there's no need for faith. Sometimes you gotta sit in silence. Just seven minutes, man. Just set your timer and just be quiet. Be still close your eyes for five minutes. That's probably the only five minutes other than sleeping that you got. Sometimes it's just that meditation man where you just, and, and if you wanna meditate by sitting there or if you just wanna meditate and walk, keep, get the earbuds out. Out of your ear, meaning put 'em up and just walk in stillness, in silence. Talk out loud. That's that reflection in the family component part of it. Just, just do better. How can you improve today By like putting your phone away. Put it face down. We all know these things, man. Having real conversations. Eat bro. Look, even if it's five minutes. Okay, it's five minutes better than like Uhhuh, Uhhuh, Uhhuh, and you're not even paying attention Fitness. Now I say fitness. You need mental and physical fitness. The mental fitness is stretching yourself every single day. I. Right. Stretching yourself every single day. So that mental fit fitness is that random reading that I talk about. The physical fitness is getting some movement in. Man, look, this is the youngest you're ever gonna be. So you gotta get some movement in your finances. You wanna make more money, increase your skillset. How can you incrementally increase your skillset? How can you do better with the money that you do have fulfillment. You gotta have and, and some of the fulfillment may be professional. My fulfillment is writing every single day, reading every single day, recording something and sharing as much as I possibly can. I have a mission to get this out every single day. And then also, I love to sell. I love the that, so that professional side of that, I love that part of it. That's fulfilling for me. What is it for you? See, here's what's cool. You don't have to overhaul your whole life. You don't have to crush all five pillars every single day. You just gotta move the needle. That's what, that's the only thing you do have to do. Move the needle. Like just bump it even just a little bit and don't give your results back. That's key. Don't give your results back. You got 24 hours. Use them to make progress. It ain't gonna be perfect a majority of the time. And then the next day, don't give your results back and start a deficit. A lot of times, man, we're starting today worse off than we did day before.'cause we gave it back. We let up just incrementally improve. So you move the needle every single day, a majority of the time. Okay. And then when you don't, there's grace. Just, okay, get better, learn from it, get better. So when you have those tough days, those grace days, okay? Learn from 'em. Find something good outta that. You didn't lose your character. You didn't snap and cuss somebody out. You didn't give your results back. Or as much, or whatever the case may be. See, all this kind of stuff matters, man. I, I truly believe the reason why people aren't experiencing happiness in life, this is key, is because they, they accepted their circumstances, their past, their present circumstances, and gave up are. They got to a level that they were comfortable and led up. It's one of those two things. And back to Socrates point, when you, this is the key to fulfillment. This is the way that you get better every single day. I, I love it. It's just in a few sentences. There's nothing better than trying to improve the way that you live moving the needle every day, and there's no greater pleasure. Then the feeling that you are indeed improving every single day, meaning job well done, meaning you get to the end of the day, you're like, I did good. I did good for the most part. And then tomorrow you zero it out and you start again. Today's a new brand new set. You had a bad day yesterday. You had a good day yesterday, zeroed out. Today's a brand new day and you incrementally improve. Just get a little bit better. In each of those five areas of your life, you don't have to get all overwhelmed. You don't just pick an area that, that you yearn for. Pick an area that really is just the, the beacon there. Start with that one and then build out from there. This is a, this is a a forever journey. You're gonna be a forever traveler. Until the day you die and beyond, this sets you up for beyond whatever you believe after that. So every day, man, you condition yourself to grow and you just move in that right direction and you improve the way that you live. And as you do, man, others get better that are in your camp that you love, they improve too, and it just feeds upon itself. See the actions. Actions, the feelings follow the actions. So you gotta take the action first. The feelings, which is what he's saying I do first. I know that I'm improving, and then I feel that improvement because I know I did it. That's your check back and see that. So you have the actions, you have the feelings, and then the feeling puts you in position to take on the next action. You zero it out the next day. New action, new thing, new areas, new improvements in each of the five areas of your life. Faith, family, fitness, finances, fulfillment. That's it. Just keep it simple. It's how we end every podcast, right? That's how we're gonna end this podcast. Keep it simple, keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.