It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away the unessential.

Bruce Lee

Our society has taught us that more equals better. More money, more material goods, more of basically anything will increase your happiness.

That may work on a superficial level, but it won’t fulfil you, it won’t make you genuinely happy. Collecting material goods or money may occupy your mind and give you a sense of accomplishment, but it has two flaws. It will make you depend on those goods and it will always have you craving for more.

Satisfaction and happiness are mental states that have no requirements. By nature you can be happy and satisfied at any given moment. The assumption that more stuff or money will make you happy eventually will make you run a race you can not win.

It will make you chase the carrot on a stick and before you know it, you are exhausted and still as far away from your carrot than you were at the beginning.

Lee was also talking about martial arts when he talked about hacking away the unessential, but it can definitely be used as a metaphor for your life. Like Fight Club taught us: The things you own end up owning you.

Happiness comes from the inside, not from the outside. It is not dependant on circumstances, it acknowledges them. It forms them, creating chances and possibilities. 

Use your time for the essentials. You have one life and a limited amount of given time. Make good use of it. And by good use I do not mean accumulate as much money or collect as many houses/cars, whatever. You can do that. Just don’t do it as a pathway to happiness, because you will find out that it is a dead end.

/phil