An idea that is very transformative is the idea of a passive benefit. It’s usually applied to income, but it can apply to any goals you have. The basic idea is that you can invest some initial effort, then the benefit will keep going with little to no additional effort on your part. In income, this is usually done either through capital (e.g., buying a house or apartment building, then renting it out) or through creating a business that you then step back from (think Silicon Valley serial entrepreneurs). The thing is that you can apply this to happiness and impact too. You can think about things that, after you put in the initial effort, require little maintenance and still produce emotional well being or less suffering in the world. For example, with happiness, where you live and who your spouse is requires some up front investment, but then it continues to provide happiness for years to decades afterwards with little maintenance. Likewise, with impact, if you start or fund a new charity then step back, that charity can keep producing impact long after you’re gone.
Some general principles of creating passive happiness include:
Change your environment
- Make positive temptations easier, more prominent, and more enticing.
- Make negative temptations more difficult, hidden, or off-putting.
- Make it a habit. Habits are things that initially take effort, but eventually become second nature, no longer requiring willpower. Think about how you brush your teeth every day and how effortless it is.
Thought replacements
- A general principle of CBT is to replace unhelpful thoughts with helpful ones. I’ll write a whole thing explaining that and how to implement it.
- Once you’ve established one of these, it becomes a habit, and you just naturally have beliefs that are more conducive to happiness (e.g. “I made a mistake. I’m an idiot.” → “I made a mistake. Interesting. I wonder what happened and how I can prevent it in the future. I should write about this on my blog! That’s always fun.”)
Objects
- Some objects can, once purchased, keep generating happiness. For example, a dishwasher can make your house tidier, remove a tedious chore, and free up your time for better things.
Delegate
- Make it so it’s no longer you who’s doing the thing. Give it to another person or a machine who can do it just as well, if not better. For example, hire somebody to clean your house or purchase a Roomba.
If the idea of passive impact or happiness appeals to you, I recommend taking a moment right now to think about how it might apply to your life, then come up with a plan on how to implement it.