Happiness is something that everyone wants. Different people might use different words for it, but everyone wants to live a happy life. But what is happiness? How would you define it? This is an important question because your definition of happiness will influence your decisions and actions.
In my previous post, I wrote about living an adventurous life. There I wrote that a good life is a life of adventure. I also wrote that living an adventurous life requires you to take risks. Here I’d like to share with you another side of it: living an adventurous life may require you to reimagine your life. Why is that the case?
I read an article a while back about what makes a good life. It says that an important element of a good life is something called “psychological richness.” Here is an excerpt: According to this view, a good life is one that is interesting, varied and surprising—even if some of those surprises aren’t necessarily pleasant ones. In fact, the things that make a life psychologically rich may actually make it less happy in the ordinary sense. After all, to put it bluntly, a happy life can also be boring. Adventures, explorations and crises may be painful, but at least they’re interesting.
Warren Buffett, the famed investor, turned 90 last Sunday. At that age, he still hasn’t retired. He is still the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Not only does he live long, but also he stays sharp mentally. In fact, one thing he did on his 90th birthday is announcing a new deal that Berkshire just made. Bill Gates mentioned that he has the mental sharpness of a 30-year-old.
I’m always interested in learning how to make good decisions. After all, optimizing our lives has a lot to do with the quality of our decisions. The better decisions we make, the more likely we are to reach our full potential. In that regard, I recently read Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke. I was interested in the book because I have noticed that many leaders use “thinking in bets” when making decisions. A clear example is Bill Gates. This is what I wrote in A Key Factor to Living Life to the Fullest:
We now live in an uncertain time. Things that seemed certain just a few months ago may seem uncertain now. What seemed like sure bets back then may turn out to be the opposite. So how can we go through this? Well, I believe that the key to survive and even thrive in uncertain times is being adaptable.