Hey there,

I want to wish you all a Happy Hanukah and I hope y'all had a great week. Today's essay ponders a simple (yet frustrating) question: What does it mean to live a happy life?

This coming Saturday (December 11th), I'll be collaborating with my long-time coach Andrew Taggart on a live 2-day workshop to explore the foundation of happiness, get you unstuck, and put it all into practice.

As we lead up to the workshop, Andrew and I will be hosting a free and live 4-day Meditation Challenge beginning this Tuesday, December 7th.

A (broken) playbook for happiness

Let’s play a game together.

I want you to close your eyes and think back to your early 20s.

Bring into focus what you were doing. Where you were situated. What you were wearing. Whom you were hanging with.

And the dreams and desires that consumed your intimate daily thoughts.

Now ask yourself the question:

Maybe it was a really nice watch, so that you could subtly flex your bonus to your college bros.

Or a serious relationship to get over that sting of being shunned in high school.

Or running a marathon – at a time, that would make others say, “Wow, what an athlete.”

Or maybe it was getting accepted to a prestigious MBA program – at a quaint, little school outside of Boston.

Alright, now that you’ve identified that achievement or item, ask yourself:

Note that word lasting. Inevitably, when you achieved said goal, you felt a spike in happiness. But did it last more than a couple of weeks? Or was it days? (And what was it like after that?)

For me, in my 20s, that desire was to make 6 figures.

As the child of first generation immigrants I learned that 6 figures was a symbolic container for many things: financial security, status, and yes, the ability to make material purchases (i.e., hard-to-find Nikes on eBay) without worry.

And when I made 6 figures for the first time (~ age 25), a few things happened. I felt damn good. My happiness spiked. I called my (proud) parents. I bought some overpriced shots at the NYC hot spot Marquee. And I ordered some Triple-Black Nike SB Zoom Janoski Max at double over retail price.

But within a few weeks, the high had faded. Yes, my life was much more comfortable and secure – but I definitely was not meaningfully happier than when I was earning 5 figures. And then over time I felt dull, kinda empty, and things went back to normal.

And while I’ve been super fortunate to reach many great milestones during my time on this earth — the pattern was eerily similar.

When I bought my first apartment at 28, the high lasted for a few months.

When I got promoted to Managing Director at 31 – 3 weeks.

When I got featured on the cover of CNN at 35 – a week.

Even when RadReads became a profitable business last year, I experienced nothing but a happiness “blip.”

Here’s how I thought reaching these milestones would impact my happiness:

And here’s what actually happened:

I shared this observation with a friend who drew an unlikely comparison:

“You’re like a stoner,” he said.

Here are this week's top reads:

// one

Quitting my job on Wall Street to become a creator

24 minutes | ConvertKit
​

Are you looking to leave your comfy job to pursue the life of an Internet entrepreneur? I share the highs, the struggles and the joys of teaching in this mini documentary.

// two

Be careful what you measure

3 minutes | Ozan Varol
​

RadReaders are a community of trackers and optimizers. We measure sleep, time spent on tasks, OKRs. Heck, some of us even track our intra-day glucose levels. But beware of Goodhart's Law, which states: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." My friend, Ozan Varol reminds us that when we’re too focused on what we measure, we can lose sight of everything else—including common sense. (Ozan's newsletter The Weekly Contrarian is one of my must-reads each week, I highly recommend subscribing.)

→ Read the post​

// three

Workers quit jobs in droves to become their own bosses

8 minutes | Wall Street Journal

​
Workers are fed up. They want flexibility, they’re anxious about workplace COVID policies, and they want more time with their kids. What are they doing instead? They’re becoming self-employed - over 4.5 million new businesses were registered this year alone and the number of people working for themselves went up by 500K in the last year. (One piece of advice, be wary of solopreneur burnout.)

→ Read the article​

// four

Make learning a part of your daily routine

7 minutes | Harvard Business Review
​

Job descriptions are not what they used to be - what were once rigidly defined, pigeon-holed roles are now more squiggly and fluid. What’s the key to succeeding in a new economy with much more flexibility and frequent change? The ability to learn, unlearn, and re-learn. Like Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, says, “the learn-it-all will always do better than the know-it-all.”

→ Read the article​

// five

I'm thankful to cancer – we lived life fully before my husband died

7 minute | Metro UK
​

How would you view your life and time differently if you were given a terminal cancer diagnosis? For Tim, the answer, while heartbreaking, was kind of simple: live. Get meals with loved ones. Go on runs. Move to Spain. Have a blowout birthday party. Renew wedding vows. Hysterically laugh with your kids. What would we do if we knew we didn’t have much time left? As Tim’s wife reminds us, “we’re alive everyday of our existence until we’re not.”
​
→ Read the post​

// from our community

Looking to step up your $10K Work? I'll be leading a live training with Dan Shipper at Superorganizers on our signature productivity framework to getting the right things done. The event is for Superorganizers readers, but you can sign up for a 2 week trial for one dollar. Sign up for the event today.

Below the fold

​

LAST WEEK'S MOST READ

• ​Does the Perfect Job exist? (RadReads, 537 clicks)
• ​Climbing the wrong hill (Chris Dixon, 427 clicks)

​

And finally, a simple guideline for who gives a sh*t (about you).

With gratitude,

Khe

PS Refer two friends to RadReads and receive our free Weekly Review Cheat Sheet. Here's your unique link: https://sparklp.co/9ac1b50d

PPS Did someone rad forward this to you? Subscribe here.

​Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook​