TLDR: The opposite of happiness isn’t sadness, it’s hopelessness. That’s why believing in the future is crucial.
Last week I wrote about happiness & mental loops, and the idea that the thoughts we repeat in our heads create pathways for new experiences to be filtered through.
Today is the opposite.
What’s the opposite of happiness?
You might think sadness, but here’s Mark Manson…
The opposite of happiness is not anger or sadness – it’s hopelessness, an endless grey horizon of resignation and indifference.
I heard this and I was reminded of that New York Times article on “languishing.”
Here we are, still on day eleventy billion of COVID, and many people I know have expressed they feel like they’re burned out, languishing, losing hope—a desire to get life back into gear.
So if you need a little Monday Morning Motivation, here’s one I’ve always liked. Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement speech on believing in the future:
You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
If our happiness depends in part on the absence or presence of hope, then maybe a shift in perspective is what will unlock our potential.
See you Monday.