Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

“I do not know what this day will bring, but I will accept it.”

Enjoyment takes an urge for pleasure and adds two important things: communion and consciousness.

Enjoyment takes work and forgoing pleasures; satisfaction requires sacrifice and doesn’t last; purpose almost always entails suffering. Getting happier, in other words, requires that we accept unhappiness in our lives as well, and understanding it isn’t an obstacle to our happiness.

You can’t be happy—though you can be happier. And your circumstances and your source of unhappiness don’t have to stop you.

Happiness is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.

“It’s not my fault, and I won’t take this personally.”

Happiness is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose. To get happier is to get more of these elements, in a balanced way—not all of one and none of another. But if you were reading closely, you noticed one funny thing about all three: they all have some unhappiness within them. Enjoyment takes work and forgoing pleasures; satisfaction

The second macronutrient of happiness is satisfaction. It’s that thrill from accomplishing a goal you worked for. It’s that feeling you have when you get an A in school or a promotion at work; when you finally buy a house or get married. It’s how you feel when you do something difficult—maybe even painful—that meets your life’s purpose as you see i

Your emotions are only signals. And you get to decide how you’ll respond to them.