Build The Life You Want

The Book in One Sentence

The 3 "macro-nutrients" of happiness are enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.

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3 Happiness Macronutrients

1) Enjoyment

"Enjoyment takes an urge for pleasure and adds two important things: communion and consciousness.
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For example, Thanksgiving can bring pleasure when it tastes good and fills your belly, but it brings enjoyment when you eat with loved ones and make a warm memory together, employing the more conscious parts of your brain.
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​Pleasure is easier than enjoyment, but it is a mistake to settle for it, because it is fleeting and solitary. All addictions involve pleasure, not enjoyment."

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2) Satisfaction

"Satisfaction is that thrill from accomplishing a goal you worked for.​
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Satisfaction is wonderful, but it doesn't come without work and sacrifice.
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​If you don't suffer for something - at least a little - it doesn't satisfy at all."

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3) Purpose

"Purpose is the most important macronutrient of happiness.
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We can do make do without enjoyment for a while, even without a lot of satisfaction.
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​Without purpose, however, we are utterly lost, because we can't deal with life's inevitable puzzles and dilemmas.
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When we do have a sense of meaning and purpose, we can face life with hope and inner peace."

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Conclusion

Enjoyment takes work and forgoing pleasures; satisfaction requires sacrifice and doesn't last; purpose almost always entails suffering.

Getting happier, in other words, requires that we accept unhappiness in our lives as well, and understanding that it isn't an obstacle to our happiness.