How to Be Happy

Ian Greer -

Life is about solving your problems. The most difficult problems are the most important to solve.

What are the most difficult problems?

  1. Health
  2. Knowledge
  3. Relationships
  4. Wealth

How do I solve them?

  1. Develop good health habits.
  2. Read books.
  3. Make friends, then date people. Try to fix your family culture.
  4. Develop a high-income skill and invest.

These 4 solutions need to be done sequentially to prevent issues down the road. Why? Because health and knowledge only involve you – they're easier. Relationships and wealth involve other people – they're more difficult.

Health and knowledge are the basis for your relationship and wealth endeavors.

Health

The first thing you need to do is develop your health habits. Health habits are essential because they are the easiest to develop and they improve your mental health. The positive results from your health habits will motivate you to develop reading, relationship, and wealth habits. I recommend reading this article and watching this video to learn about developing habits.

Develop good health habits:

  1. Hydrate properly. Watch this video to figure out what proper hydration is for you. A general tip is to drink a gallon of water spread out evenly throughout the day.
  2. Sleep 8-9 hours a night. Go to sleep at a decent time (before 10 p.m.). Get a good sleep mask and earplugs. Meditate before bed. Keep the room temperature between 60-67°F.
  3. Eat healthy. This one is more difficult. What does 'healthy' mean? Vegan, keto, paleo, or carnivore? I don't think anyone really knows. But 'healthy' is probably something like this: eat high-quality (organic) vegetables and (100% grass-fed) meats. No processed foods.
  4. Go to the gym 4 times a week. Read this article to learn how to quickly get your dream physique.

Remove bad health habits:

  1. No alcohol
  2. No sugar
  3. No drugs
  4. No coffee

Don't quit on your habits: "I believe deep down we all know who we are. You cannot hide anything from yourself. Your own failures are written within your psyche, and they are obvious to you. If you have too many shortcomings, you will not respect yourself. The worst outcome in this world is not having self-esteem." – Naval Ravikant

Knowledge

We develop knowledge by reading books. Reading books gives us better decision-making. Better decisions lead to a better life.

Read:

  1. In the beginning, it is essential to read books that you will enjoy. If you enjoy what you're reading, it's much easier to develop the habit.  Start by going to mostrecommendedbooks.com, it's a website that has the recommended reading lists of a bunch of successful people. Find someone you like and start reading what seems interesting.
  2. I recommend watching this YouTube video by Joe Brown on why you should read and how to do it.
  3. I recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. It tells you how to build good habits and break bad habits.
  4. Set a reading goal (like 20 books a year).
  5. Start reading books on health, relationships, and knowledge. Also, read all of the humanities and the sciences. This will give you an idea of what career you want to go into.
  6. Write down 10 ideas every day.
  7. Learn to write well.
  8. Learn to speak well.

Relationships

  1. Make friends. Join a running club, sports team, or book club to make new friends. People will naturally like you if you're fun, healthy, and knowledgeable.
  2. Date people. Date people in your friend group. You need to have meaningful friendships before you start dating.
  3. Fix your family culture. This is extremely difficult – often impossible because people don't change. But you should still try.
  4. Remove toxic people from your life. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

Wealth

Wealth is easier to achieve after you have adequate health, knowledge, and relationships.

  1. Make digital media content (books, blogs, YouTube videos, Tweets, podcasts). Post what you learn daily. Use the knowledge you got from reading books in step 2. Remember: nothing is truly unique. Combine ideas from experts to make great new work.
  2. Send your digital media to friends and family to spread it. Your media channel will be the marketing for #3 below.
  3. Find your passion and start a business. Your passion is something that feels like fun to you but work to others. Turn your passion into a product or service. If you don't have a business idea yet, just focus on digital media. After you read a bunch of books, you'll have too many business ideas.
  4. Read this article to learn the personal finance basics.
  5. Read these business books and my series of finance articles.
  6. Learn to invest. Research crypto, stocks, and real estate.
  7. Get the Insider Investor Newsletter. I give instant updates on my stock and crypto buys and sells. You can skip steps 5&6 and get right into making money. You can get more info here.

What is happiness?

Happiness = health + knowledge + good relationships.

Seek happiness before wealth.

That's the best info I've found. When I find new tips, I'll post them here on this website. You can get email notifications here.