Reduce anxiety, find happiness, boost success - advice from Naval Ravikant
Issue 003
In this edition…
Happiness → success, not vice versa Through daily choices, we can become happier people. Happier people tend to succeed more - in work and beyond.
The superpower of calm Hacks from Naval Ravikant on reducing your anxiety
Happiness → success, not vice versa
Many assume that successful colleagues and peers are happy because of their success, when in fact evidence builds a case for the opposite: happiness is a key reason certain people are more successful than others.
Happier people are more satisfied with their jobs, receive greater social support from coworkers, and garner better performance evaluations from supervisors.
What can we glean from this? Instead of chasing success (money, promotions, awards) and expecting happiness to follow, we should strive for happiness through daily habits and expect success to follow.
During a conversation with Tim Ferriss, Naval Ravikant (co-founder and chairman of AngelList) echoed this sentiment: “Money doesn't make you happier. It takes care of your money problems. In fact, there's nothing out there that will make you happy forever. You have to take responsibility for guiding yourself in such a way that your mental state ends up where you want it.”
Naval’s tips on establishing habit loops that increase your happiness:
🚀 Many activities reward you in the short-term (screens, caffeine, sugar, alcohol) but sap happiness in the long term. Sustained happiness is found through healthy habits that you actually enjoy.
🚀 Try a variety of healthy activities and see what make you most happy. This could be singing, cooking, reading, swimming, or meditating. What works for others may not work for you. It doesn’t actually matter what makes you the most happy - regardless of what society tells us.
🚀 Once you’ve identified healthy activities that make you happy, prioritize making them habits.
This requires a daily, sustained effort with acknowledgement that you won’t see benefits in the immediate term
Reflect on and identify your “desire-motivators” to encourage habit formation
🚀 Do something active every day. It’s challenging, but it goes a long way if you make it a priority.
The superpower of calm
Anxiety is intimately connected to happiness. A popular tweet from Naval prompts:
“Imagine how effective you would be if you weren’t anxious all the time?”
Reducing anxiety brings calmness, which Naval believes is a superpower of successful people. During a recent conversation with Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Antonio Gracias (Valor Equity Partners) explained that when evaluating founders, the ability to remain calm under pressure is a key attribute they look for.
So, how can we reduce our anxiety and achieve a state of calm more often?
Naval argues anxiety is a result of an unexamined life. He believes self examination can come in many forms, including but not limited to conventional meditation. Other forms of self examination:
🧠 Read before bed and think about how the book connects to your life. Naval’s recommendations?
The Way to Love by Anthony de Mello
The Book of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer
🧠 30-60 minutes per day, be still. Don’t listen to anything or walk around. Let your mind run.
Your mind might “talk, be quiet, or fight,” but by allowing it to do “what it wants”, you catch yourself up on lingering thoughts and return to inbox zero
Naval says this is the “single most important thing” he does on a daily basis
🧠 Strive to be more aware of your thoughts
Apply the same critical filter to your own thoughts that you do to comments made by other people
Naval says being critical of his own thoughts gives him the “ability to see through his own BS”
Sometimes, our thoughts are ruled by paranoia, anger, and emotions that may lead us to stray from reality. In these cases, we need to check ourselves.
Eliminating anxiety and being happy 100% of the time is impossible. Instituting small daily activities to reduce stress and increase happiness is achievable, starting today.
This week, identify an activity you really enjoy that you could do every day. Then, make a plan to integrate it into your daily schedule. Don’t delay.
Thanks for reading this week’s All and Now
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