Well, YES, it is possible to train yourself to be happy and have peace of mind even in times of great stress! And I must thank Naval Ravikant for being such an inspiring guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast in which he shared simple happiness hacks that have positively impacted his life over the last 8 years. I’ve now listened to his podcast 3 times and get something new out of it each time. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

hacks to happiness

Naval believes happiness is a choice. A choice that remains elusive for most of us until we “uncondition” ourselves from the negative thoughts that linger in our minds longer than positive thoughts do.

He also talks about the simple ways all of us can hack our way to happiness:

• get more sunlight
• spend more time in nature
• smile more
• hug more
• stay fit
• watch your mind and avoid negative thoughts

Let me add the most important thing I’ve done to regain peace of mind: cut out TV viewing. I haven’t turned on the TV in over a month. I keep up with the news online, it’s still stressful but I can be more selective about how much negativity I let into my life.

Scroll down for the link to Naval’s podcast and for two happiness experiences I had this week.

1. Naval Ravikant On His Shift To Happiness

Naval is an entrepreneur and angel investor, a co-author of Venture Hacks, and a co-maintainer of AngelList.

“Happiness is a choice. In every moment, in everything that happens, you can look at the bright side of something. I used to do that forcibly and then I trained myself until it became second nature. There are a few things that are high suffering where you just have to say, “Well, this is a teacher.” Right? But I’ve slowly worked through every negative judgment that I had until I saw the positive.

Naval Ravikant, June 2019

Besides happiness, Naval shared ideas on what the future will look like

I took copious notes. Here are ten concepts I’m still pondering.

1. The modern “knowledge worker athlete” trains, sprints, rests, re-assesses (is more like a lion on a hunt than a cow grazing in the field)
2. Creativity is the last frontier (impervious to AI?)
3. Virtually everyone is going to work for themselves eventually
4. If someone can tell you where/when to work, what to wear etc. you’re not free (even if you’re a CEO)
5. Work projects are best planned as missions, it’s how Hollywood already works. You assemble around a project. It’s how we’re most productive
6. “Desire” is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. If you get drawn into the “desire” trap, you’ll be stuck on the Ferris wheel of life, addicted to its constant up-and-downs, never satisfied.
7. Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for some imaginary tomorrow.
8. Your real resume is a catalog of your sufferings and the challenges you’ve faced and overcome or been beaten down by.
9. The most powerful people in the world today are the people writing the algorithms for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google – they elect presidents!
10. Technology always leans left

2. Backyard Chickens Make Me Happy

Anybody else noticing the poultry as pets trend? Everyone suddenly seems to be getting into rustic backyard chicken farming! And the chickens (and their eggs) are more beautiful and exotic than ever.

Designer Chickens/Fancy Chicken Coops

Per the Watertown NY Daily Times: “All nine hardware stores were sold out of chicken wire, highlighting the evolution of local food production and increasing demand for homegrown gardens and poultry development.”

Hatcheries all over the country are reporting demand for baby chickens is booming with sales up tenfold. EVERYONE in my network is into it. Even Joe Rogan is raising chickens!

Joycie Weatherby built a backyard chicken coop in LA

She started posting beautiful photos of her chickens (from baby to full-grown) a few months ago. She told me her family got into chickens after experiencing an egg shortage at the supermarket. She claims her mom comes to visit just to see the chickens!

Doug Jaeger, designer, and partner at JaegerSloan has an amazing set-up

Doug and his wife relocated to the Catskills from Brooklyn and are now full-on backyard chicken farmers. (Thank you Joycie for the tip). They have a great Instagram account and they also have a NEST CAM on their website live-streaming from the chicken coop. Check it out!

Connecticut chickens (thank you Susan Winkeler for the photos!)

Wisconsin: where I first spied the chicken trend

Coming full circle, Brad’s nephew and his wife have built a backyard coop and love their Silkies.

Dezeen Magazine is even getting in on coop architecture

Kengo Kuma’s studio designed a blackened-wood chicken coop at the Casa Wabi arts foundation in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, for chickens that will provide eggs for the community’s residents. According to the studio the coop was designed to be like a collective housing project.

The one downside to the pet poultry trend

Salmonella!! Twice as many cases reported this year vs. last year.

3. My Outdoors “Happiness” Fix

I’m biking and getting into nature more. The highlight of the weekend was Citibiking in Central Park with my friend Joseph. I introduced him to city-biking but he did something much more major: he introduced me to the Central Park Conservatory Garden. Blown away. Absolutely sublime. Cannot believe I had never been there.

And finally, to wrap it up.

Does anybody else wish that the COVID mortality numbers were presented in context to overall global deaths?

• For example, globally 500,000 people have died of COVID over the last 6 months.
• BUT in that same 6-months, 27 million people have died (17.7 million from cardiovascular diseases, and 1.3 million from contagious respiratory ailments like influenza – for which there is a vaccine but which half of Americans refuse to get!)
• For me, this broader context is a critical part of assessing my personal risk.

So thank you World Economic Forum for releasing these global mortality numbers. Link here.

• 55 million deaths globally each year
• 150,000 deaths each day
• Cardiovascular diseases are the biggest killer globally (48K daily)
• Lower Respiratory Illnesses (e.g., influenza) are the biggest killers among communicable diseases at 7K per day globally
• COVID-19’s peak week globally was April 13-19, 2020 which resulted in 7,500 daily deaths.

and on that note…

I’m pretty sure we will see more cases coming out of the July 4th Holiday so have a great weekend everyone but don’t be reckless!

Party On – but be extra careful this year!