Brad Stulberg

So I really think the only answer is to be kind to yourself, to realize it's going to suck, and then to do everything you can to return to the work as soon as possible.

Yeah.

And just to expect it.

Like I said, it's the cost of caring deeply is that eventually you're going to get your heart broken.

But the alternative to self-handicap and to never give something your all, yeah, you protect yourself from the hurt of failure a little bit, but you also don't get nearly the satisfaction and the joy if you were to achieve this success.

And even if you don't, just of knowing that I gave this thing my all.

I am increasingly less concerned with happiness in my own life as I am with satisfaction.

So to me, happiness is very ephemeral.

It comes and it goes, and what I realize is the more that I try to be happy, the less happy that I am.

So it feels like a butterfly, and I'm not the first person to say this, or sleep.

Like the more you try to grab the butterfly, the more it escapes.

The more you try to sleep, the harder it is to sleep.

However, I can pretty clearly delineate when I'm satisfied and what habits and behaviors and how I spend my time and energy lead to satisfaction.

And satisfaction is the feeling of like going to sleep.

fulfilled.

Like, okay, I did what I was here to do today.

I had a good day.

I can rest easy.

I exerted myself in meaningful ways.

Because I think about the times in my life when I am the most satisfied and I'm not the happiest.