Happiness in Simplicity

Our world has become big and complex. Specialized diets such as a ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting. Specialized workouts such as high intensity interval training or individual body part training. Figuring out the next hot stock and stock picking.? Making ourselves appear more attractive through material means and over extending on things we can’t afford.

We tend to seek out these complex solutions because we think we’ll get the results we want from them because we see other people online promoting these ideas telling you that's what got them to where they are now. You’re comparing your chapter 1 to someone else’s Chapter 20.?

In reality happiness is about making our world smaller and starting with simple starter step solutions. That’s how we get onto the train and stay on the train. When we try to go from 0 to 100 from the start, we either miss the train entirely or aren’t able to hold on once we’re on the train and jump off early.

Want to lose weight? Use a simple calorie tracking app like myfitnesspal and track your daily calories. Once you know your total calories in a given day, cut back slowly on 200 calories a day and see how that feels. Don’t go extreme and try to cut everything out or start with 16 hour fasts. You’ll give up. You work your way up to those levels over time as you get more advanced.?

Want to build muscle with weights, start by focusing on full body workouts that work all the major muscle groups in a given workout. Focus on learning the active range of a muscle and how to activate that muscle through its full range of motion. Don’t copy what advanced lifters are doing. You’re not at their level yet and you may not have the genetics to train the way they train.

Want to start investing your money? Avoid fund managers who charge you a fee for picking stocks (and here’s a secret: they know just as much as you do). No one has a crystal ball for the future. Don’t try to pick stocks for companies you know nothing about unless you’re willing to put in the work to learn how to analyze a company and its stock valuation.?

Open up a commission free brokerage account and invest in index funds that cover the entire market e.g. Canada and the US. Think of an index fund like buying an entire book of stocks vs buying an individual chapter. If one chapter sinks, you still have all the other chapters in the book to hold you up. If you only hold that one chapter, you’re at the mercy of the markets.?

Want to improve your relationship? Spend time working on your communication and talking with each other. Practice active listening - not listening to respond but listening to understand. Being open and vulnerable with each other. Taking the mask off and being able to share how you feel and why.?

Dedicate time to understand what’s important to each other. Understanding each other’s preferences. You don’t need a relationship coach before trying simple human touches that can alleviate a lot of problems. Sit down and talk with each other without distractions.?

If you want to start eating healthier, look for whole foods vs processed foods. Spend more time on the perimeter of grocery stories. That’s where you’ll find the produce, meats/seafood, dairy vs aisles that have more processed and sugary foods. You don’t need complicated recipes. Simple mix of protein, carbs, healthy fats and using spices for seasoning.

Simplicity is the key. Some of the best solutions in life are in the simple things. They might be boring and not as sexy as what’s advertised online but these are the strategies that build long term success and happiness.?

Ask yourself what’s the simplest thing I can do right now that’s going to get me maximum benefit to start? Once you’ve mastered the simple solutions you can look to go more advanced as you learn more.

Thanks for reading and see you again next week.

~V

The Hustler’s Mindset