ERIC KIM

Why Be Happy?

I’m happy, and I strive to maintain my personal happiness.

But why is happiness important? What functional purpose does it serve? And in what ways is happiness overrated, or underrated?

I’m happy. On certain days I can say I’m ‘happier’ than other days. But for the most part, I strive to maximize my own personal happiness.

What is ‘happiness’?

At the moment, this is what I think happiness is:

Happiness is physiological strength, mental optimism, and muscular vigor.

So when I’m in a state where I’m physically strong and vigorous, and mentally productive/positive– I would say I am “happy”.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy

For me, it doesn’t take much to make me happy. For example, this is what I need for my personal happiness:

  1. A good night sleep (at least 8 hours at night)
  2. Good coffee during the day
  3. The opportunity to walk around a bit, and shoot photos
  4. Focus on producing creative work
  5. Kisses and sweet conversations with Cindy
  6. Being able to publish things (blog posts, photos, videos, etc)
  7. Free from distractions/drama: The benefit of living with just Cindy

Pretty simple.

What does it mean for me to be ‘happier’?


Now there certainly seems to be days where I am “happier” (more vigorous) than other days.

The days when I am happier I feel more energetic, more positive, more powerful. I feel stronger focus and hope/optimism for the future.

But what contributes to certain days that I feel “happier”? For the most part it seems to be a ‘via negativa’ thing–

The days that I feel happier I experience less drama, stress, and bullshit.

So perhaps my default state is ‘happy’ — and it is outside forces which STRIP AWAY or negate my happiness.

selfie
Selfie Mexico Ricoh

Why become happier?

Now this is the question which is interesting to me:

Why be happier?

To me, when I am happy, I have more creative energy, power, and vigor. The happier I am, the more creatively productive I am! And assuming that creating things brings me joy, and sharing my creative works with others gives me personal meaning– my personal happiness is essential if I desire to help empower others.

The more productive I am, the more motivate I am (to create more)

When I am in a good mood, I create more. I produce more, I think more, I explore more, I take more risks, and I over-flow more with creative ideas!

  • CDMX, 2019

How to become ‘happier’

Now this is the trillion dollar question:

How do I become ‘happier’?

First, If we believe that happiness is more a physiological thing (happiness resides in your muscular fibers), then it seems that to become happier, become stronger (physically– build your muscles). This means do more deadlifts at the gym, chin-ups at the park, and pushups at home.

Secondly, remove irritants from your life. Remove negative people, subtract leeches, don’t listen to the news (all negativity/poison/toxic), and creatively isolate yourself. What irritates you won’t necessarily irritate you, and what irritates you won’t necessarily irritate me. Thus, strive to know yourself better, to learn what irritates you– and just remove more irritants/bullshit from your life.

Thirdly, focus on your creative productivity. This means literally–produce more creative art-works. Shoot more photos (shoot everyday), process photos everyday, and publish photos everyday to your own blog.

These are three simple things you can focus on.

What doesn’t affect my personal happiness?

Purely speaking for myself, these are things which don’t really affect my personal happiness much (things which I thought would, but don’t really):

  1. Financial independence: I grew up poor, and getting older, I became richer. Furthermore, my income has bounced around a lot in my lifetime. It seems that to be truly honest– money doesn’t make a substantial impact on your personal happiness. I’ve been poorer and happier (when I’m more creatively productive). I’ve been richer and more miserable (when I’ve been less creatively productive). Thus on a basic level, it seems that creative productivity is a trillion times more important to me than how much money I’m earning, or how much money I have in the bank account.
  2. Fame: I like being famous, but it doesn’t really affect my personal happiness on a day-to-day basis. If anything, sometimes it is better to be more unknown — I like being anonymous at coffee shops, so I can just focus on my creative work.
  3. Traveling the world: I’ve learned that I far prefer living in a city than in a suburb — and living in an urban environment actually contributes a lot to my personal happiness/productivity. For example, just living in Mexico City for the last month has made me incredibly happy. I think I can be perfectly happy just staying here in Mexico City– I don’t need to permanently be on the road. Living nomadically has helped me live a more interesting life, but I think it isn’t nomadic living which contributes to my happiness– it is the creative productivity which comes with nomadic living which makes me happier (when I’m living nomadically, I am more uncomfortable, which leads to more creative innovation on my part).

Conclusion

Some personal takeaway tips:

  1. Shoot everyday, process photos everyday, and share photos everyday (to your own blog)
  2. Intermittent fasting + ketogenic diet seems to help increase my personal vigor, energy, and focus.
  3. Mexico City is my favorite city in the world (for food, cultural experiences, friendly folks, wifi, and street photography).
  4. Prioritize your personal happiness over everything.

LIVE ON!

ERIC

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