There are basics. Earnestly pursued they create contentment.
Be honest
With others, of course. But especially with yourself.
Cash register honesty is easy. Telling yourself the truth about yourself is hard.
Be kind
With others, of course. But especially to yourself.
Petting kittens and playing with puppies is easy. Entertaining a toddler is easy.
Knowing when to push, when to hold back, when to cut—with the objective of what is best for the other person—is hard.
Especially it’s a matter of kindness to yourself. It’s too easy to be too hardcore (my one “10K every day” exercise routine mantra is an example) or too soft (“why yes I will eat half a cheesecake, I can eat less tomorrow”).
Physical exercise and diet are the easy examples. Interactions with people? Hard. What is best for them? For me? For the group, community, society?
Get good at something
This is underrated and so important.
Pursue something—really, it could be anything—and become really damned good at it.
This will take time. You will realize that there is no “there” there. The pursuit has no finish line.
You will, from a position of mastery, respect other masters (in your own field and elsewhere) as peers, fellow pilgrims. They are not competitors.
You will recognize hidden masters all around you, in plain sight. They are special, because they seek nothing, they want nothing, they just are. You can become one if you choose. This is the highest calling.
This to me is every man’s fate: to deliberately choose the path of apprentice, journeyman, and master of a difficult endeavor. Or . . . emptiness.
One chooses this path in the same way that a man chooses the path of Father—not for himself, but for his children yet unborn, for whom he willingly and quietly bears a lifetime of responsibility.