When I was fifteen years old, the question of happiness really got me thinking, but at that time I had no idea where to start. I started looking around in my environment and thought every grown up person must have figured it out. Because for me, it was such an obvious thing to ask, and no adult seems to bother with this question anymore, so I figured they must have already found an answer. Later in life, the more people I spoke to, the more books I read the deeper I thought about it, the more I realized that I was wrong. People just ignore this question because It’s really hard to reflect on your life. It’s much more comfortable to just push it away and stay in your mental comfort zone. And maybe for some people, it’s therefore hard to reflect on life because they don’t like what they see.

I was always looking for that one strategy that brings you an ultimate state of happiness. I got really into different types of world view over stoicism to nihilism.

At the moment, my point of view is that life is not meant to make you happy. Humans have evolved for surviving in really tough conditions. With the help of our ingenuity and creation of knowledge we have come a long way and humankind is now better off than ever before. But the main goal of our body, our genes, is to spread copies of them. It’s not intended that we are fulfilled beings who a satisfied with what is, living in pure happiness and bliss. That is not the main goal. For nature, it’s totally fine that we are happy enough not to commit suicide, but everything else is optional. Life is suffering from an evolutionist point of view. So this is what we are starting with. It was naive of me to think that there is total happiness, there will always be ups and down. But I am convinced that you can increase the median level of happiness and decrease the daily fluctuations. It’s counterintuitive. In order to live a better life, you have to suffer, that’s just making use of the way our brain is wired. Imagine all the money you want and unlimited free time. Naively, you might think this is the dream and would lead to an ultimate state of happiness. But think about this, so after hundreds of days of eating what you want, riding jet Ski, partying, drinking being around very attractive people – what do you end up with? Probably some great experiences, but nothing to look forward to. No hope for improvement. If put not the slightest hardship on your mind, it gets weak. If you continue this lifestyle in the long run, it makes you sick.

So in conclusion what I am trying to say is:

Start your “Big Life Question” journey early in life, so you can make the best use of it. It helps to get what you want out of life. It helps you to stay calm even in the hardest times, life may bring to you. Furthermore, it gives you perspective and, and You don’t want to start thinking about these topics when you’re in your 40s /50s and life starts to go south. Think, “what kind of man or woman do I want to be ?” And don’t get me wrong, don’t expect to find the perfect answer. It’s a journey of never ending learning and improving. But the earlier you start, the more you can make use of your insights and life a more fulfilled and maybe even a happier life. This is the power of compound interest.