My wife and I are officially producing healthy food for the masses. I spent all day yesterday watching YouTube videos, trying to troubleshoot a malfunctioning refrigeration unit. Then a neighbor came over and showed me how to fix the problem in 10 minutes. Lesson: Asking for help is usually a good idea. If you’re in northern California, reach out to Muddy Bears Farm and we’ll hook you up with free-range eggs and organic strawberries.

Feature: Are You Part of the 27 Percent?

TL;DR: The argument about whether happiness comes from enjoyment or helping others just got more complicated. There’s a third factor.

Henry David Thoreau said that most people live lives of quiet desperation.

That might be truer right now than ever before.

According to a recent Gallup poll, only 44% of Americans are “very satisfied” with their life, which is the lowest since 1979 when this poll was first done.

Forbes reports that depression and anxiety are responsible for $193.2 billion in lost revenue each year in the U.S., and more than a trillion dollars worldwide.

But I consider this a good sign.

You see, in past, people had good reasons to feel dissatisfied.

Generations of peasants lived in squalor, barely keeping warm and fed. Their freedom and even life could be taken away any instant by the whim of a lord or king.

If you took the average person from 13^th-century Europe and put then in a modern urban home, their first reaction would be to think they had died and gone to heaven.

Most people alive today are more likely to die from obesity than starvation. Instead, we’re unhappy because we expect better and believe we’re worthy of more.

The fact so much of humanity lives in quiet desperation is a tribute to our optimism. Not just belief in something better, but the conviction that we can and should achieve it.

This is a good thing, and it points the way to a solution.

For more than 20 years, psychologist Shige Oishi has been studying happiness, and he recently noted something groundbreaking.

Three Kinds of People

When it comes to being happy, there are three kinds of people who each have their own source of happiness.

Now, there’s a lot of overlap, and most people want to walk all three paths of happiness. But one of these paths will lead you to a better life than the other two.

When you understand your source of happiness, it’s not hard to start doing things that will make you happier.

The Old Dichotomy

Oishi noted that for centuries, there were two schools of thought about happiness.

First, there was the hedonic approach. This was the idea that happiness comes from enjoyment. This doesn’t have to mean an orgy of feasting and debauchery. At least not every day.

You can also enjoy a good game. Spending time with your friends and family. Hearing live music or watching a sunset.

The hedonic approach to a good life is the root of the word “hedonism,” which usually has slightly negative connotations.

That’s because its opponents claimed that hedonism is selfish and greedy.

From the opposing viewpoint, you can only find true happiness by giving back. Helping people, contributing to society, doing something good with your life is the secret to happiness, according to the other point of view.

This counterpoint to hedonism is the eudaimonic lifestyle.

For the last 3,000 years or so, the hedonists and eudaimonists have been battling it out. Most people try to strike a balance between the two. Many people are not satisfied with either one.

But as it turns out, there’s a third way.

The Hobo’s Guide to Happiness

When I was 23 years old, I was invited to ride freight trains. At the time, I had nothing better to do.

I was a college graduate, but after months of searching, the only job I could find was washing dishes in the cafeteria at the university where I had recently been a student.

I had spent the previous summer protesting in vain while I watched logging crews tear apart a beloved redwood forest.

And I had just been dumped by the woman who I thought was the love of my life.

Going on an adventure, having a new and unusual experience, seemed like exactly what I needed. It turned out I was right.

I came back with a view of the world much bigger and interesting than I had ever imagined. I was feeling happier and more optimistic than I had in years.

I decided I was going to spend my life seeking adventure. And for the next 15 years, that’s pretty much what I did.

What I didn’t know is that Oishi has a term for people who want this.

The Heroic 27%

In Oishi’s research, 27% of the population wants something different than hedonic or eudaimonic happiness.

These two are always present, but Oishi noticed a third element. It involved new experiences and usually led to personal growth.

27% of humanity gets its happiness from what Oishi calls Psychological Richness. If you’re in the 27%, you’ll feel truly happy when you’re climbing.

Life is a game, a skate park, a cruise around the world. You continuously level up because as soon as you stop seeking adventure, you’re dead inside.

Living your life to the fullest is a cliché and an impossibility. But it is always the ideal to strive for. If you reach 80% of your potential, you will soar above the masses and become a guide and a model for humanity.

Because when you seek happiness through Psychological Richness, you end up enjoying all the benefits of hedonism and eudemonism, too.

Bringing Psychological Richness into Your Life

I created this newsletter for those who want to be psychologically rich.

But even if you’re more of a hedonic or eudaimonic personality, you could benefit from a little bit of adventure. Let’s find out what makes you tick.

Tool of the Week: Finding Your Fire

1. List the 10 happiest moments of your life. It’s okay if you skip something important. Just list the first 10 that come to mind

2. For each moment, ask the following questions:

   1. What do you remember most vividly about it? (Flavors, beauty, laughter, or good feelings indicate this was Hedonic happiness.)

   2. Did anyone else benefit from the experience? (If so, it is probably a eudaimonic happiness)

   3. Did you have to go through anything uncomfortable or unpleasant as part of the experience? (If you enjoyed happiness despite the discomfort, this experience was part of your psychological richness)

3. Based on your answers, classify each experience as hedonism, eudaimonism, or psychological richness.

4. If one of these three experiences is in the majority, congratulations! You’ve found which form of happiness is most important to you. Now seek out more of it.

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