Dear friend,

An idea that might make life a lot more pleasant and good— realize that happiness is overrated. Rather, seek GROWTH.

1. Growth over happiness

So… the problem with “happiness” is that we usually think of it as pleasure.

For example, I eat a hamburger and it tastes good, and it gives me pleasure. Then I feel “happy”.

Or another example: let’s say that I work really hard at my job, and I get a promotion and a salary increase. Then I feel “happy”— because I have a sense of progress.

But, then we adapt to the “new new”— psychologists call this the “hedonic treadmill.”

No matter how much pleasure we inject into our veins, we will always accustom to it. Then, we will easily feel boredom and ennui… we seek “more” pleasure. We try to earn more money, we try to buy more fancy shit, we try to buy more expensive cars, we seek more exotic travels, fancier hotels, etc.

But no matter whatever pleasures we have in life, we will eventually tire and bore of it.

2. Grow.

A better life focus:

Focus on growth.

Growth— the principle we get from nature.

A tree is always growing.

As humans, we can grow in different ways. We can learn information. We can learn wisdom and knowledge. We can improve our artistry. We can get stronger by lifting heavier weights at the gym. We can grow by growing our muscle, our mental muscle, and by growing our store of information. We can grow as artists by evolving —making new types of visual art.

3. How to grow

How do we grow?

We need more nutrition. If you want to grow muscle, you need more meat, more protein, more fat, and more nutrients.

If you want to gain wisdom and knowledge, you need nutritious information— healthful, not junk food.

If you want to grow as an artist, you need to consume great art from the past. Music: Beethoven and Mozart. Visual art: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo. For business, Ray Dalio, Steve Jobs.

4. You need to challenge yourself

With growth, you need to CHALLENGE and push yourself.

That means, avoid boredom.

For powerlifting, it would be boring to deadlift the same weight for the rest of your life. Rather, small, steady, and incremental profess and growth of strength is what we desire. For myself, I just try to add 2.5-5 pounds to my “1 rep max” each week. This is the secret formula I’ve used to raise my deadlift from 135 to 420 lbs+ from age 19 to 29. A decade of steady growth — you can grow a lot.

In photography, avoid photographing whatever you find boring or easy.

Always challenge yourself visually. Seek to challenge yourself by making more challenging pictures. Shoot more pictures which scare you —street photography is a good subject matter.

5. Find higher vistas

Avoid plateaus. You must always push further, to reach higher summits. You must always have higher mountains to climb, to challenge yourself, your tenacity, your strength, your muscles, and your determination.

So friend, let us ignore petty pleasure, “happiness”— and rather seek challenge, grandeur, and greatness. And we can only become grand by seeking more.

Never stop growing,
ERIC