A year ago, I went through a large stretch of time where I felt fatigued and in a rut. To get myself out of this state, I looked everywhere I could online to find ways to be more happy.
After spending over 500 hours scouring YouTube videos, podcasts, articles, speeches, and more, I utilized many of the things I learned to get myself out of my rut. I have outlined some of the best techniques and rules I found to becoming happier below.
The 10-Year Rule
Have you ever found the feeling of worry encapsulating yourself, to keep you from being your best self? Well, just try reframing your mindset with this trick as follows.
If you find something you are worried about, think about how it will matter to you 10 years down the line. Ask yourself these three questions-
- Will what I am worrying about negatively impact me in my day-to-day life in 10 years?
- Will it still worry me 10 years from now?
- Will I even remember what I am worrying about 10 years from now?
The fact is, asking yourself these 3 questions about something you are worrying about will, a majority of the time, lead to a resounding ‘No.’ So, what do you have to worry about? You only have the ability to control what you can control, so just do your best, knowing that you will be alright down the line.
Use this technique to not only clear up mental space, but also to help you take risks to achieve your craziest goals.
It’s Time to Grayscale
If you have an iPhone, go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> Color Filters. Turn it on, and set it to Grayscale. For Android, look up how to set your phone’s color filter to grayscale for your respective device.
Keeping your phone in grayscale makes it deliberately less appealing. No matter how much discipline you think you have, companies with billions of dollars at their disposable make it their job to make our phones as appealing as possible.
Thanks to this, phone over usage (well, frankly, addiction) has become widespread. Moderation is the key to happiness, and phone usage is not conducive to that.
By turning our phones to grayscale, what is around us seems that much more beautiful. For example, that plant you saw on your bike ride this morning. Or the beautiful blue sky you barely glanced at yesterday.
By restricting our phones’ color pallets to shades of gray, it makes the physical world that more appealing to engage with. So turn your phone on grayscale, or even better, turn it off, and just bask in the beauty of the real world. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that our mere existence is an anomaly.
The 90% Rule
Have you heard of the Law of Diminishing Returns? Well, in short, it’s an economic theory that states after a certain level of efficiency is reached, trying to do more won’t be as beneficial as it would have been earlier.
When applied to a person like me or you, this means that there is a point where working more isn’t worth it. Our current culture celebrates pushing yourself to your absolute limit, but as explained by the Law of Diminishing Returns, that is not the best thing to do if you want to keep your sanity and get results.
As Matt D’Avella, a popular minimalist YouTuber, explained – stop doing long projects and tasks once you have gotten 90% of the way to the finish line. This means, if you only have small tweaks and adjustments to do after the bulk of the work has been finished, stop what you’re working on. Instead, focus your efforts on the next thing that will get you a bulk of the results.
Moderation is one of the most important keys to being happy. So, utilize moderation with the 90% rule to help you achieve more happiness.
