contentment Archives - CLIPPING CHAINS

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023

The Problem with Bucket Lists and How to Be Happy with Less

It’s often said that happiness equals what you have minus (or sometimes divided by) what you want. When our wants are many, what we have is of little consequence. That is why there are hordes of unhappy millionaires and high achievers who quietly suffer (yes, suffer) under the weight of lofty and insatiable desires and ambitions. Western ideals place great importance on the “haves.” And despite an anecdotal feeling that my greater social circle is less materialistic, I’m less certain that we’ve diminished our appetite for having things. The things look and feel different. Less like fancy watches or cars or gaudy showings of riches and more like spreadsheets full of countries and crags unvisited, food not tasted, status not yet achieved, or routes not sent. We believe subconsciously or otherwise that by checking items off our bucket list we will arrive at some sense of blissful satisfaction. But biology and evolution suggest otherwise.

May 29, 2023May 28, 2023

Six Important Reasons to Reconsider Early Retirement

Today on episode 65 I’m revisiting a post published almost exactly two years ago. At the time of writing, I’d been away from my corporate job for eighteen months. I spent six months of that time living in a tiny A-frame camper with my wife and dog before resettling in the St. George, Utah area.

I was climbing a lot and working on this website, but I can now comfortably admit that I was in a bit of a low spot in terms of overall life satisfaction. The issue was one of expectations. In other words, I expected too much about a life without my career and I took for granted elements of my work life that enhanced life satisfaction. I was feeling stale with this project—I wouldn’t start the podcast until late summer—and despite having all the time in the world to dedicate to the craft of climbing, I was slowly coming to the realization that I’d used climbing as an attempt to fill a void that was not yet clearly defined or outlined.

Two years later, I’ve spent considerable time addressing each of the areas discussed in this post, to varying degrees of success. Stay tuned in the coming weeks and months for other changes still ongoing.

May 8, 2023May 7, 2023

The Blue Dot Effect: Pessimism in a Beautiful World

As I’ve recently mused, financial independence won’t solve life’s problems. We will never “arrive.” We will never achieve perfection. An impactful 2018 study, nicknamed the Blue Dot Effect (a stand-in for the more lumbering “prevalence-induced concept change” title), helps us to understand the mind’s tendency toward finding problems, even where none exist. The results have broad implications for individuals and members of a progressing society.

November 21, 2022November 21, 2022

Three Important Myths on Delaying a Career

A combination of economic and cultural influences are propelling the trend of delayed adulthood. Through low-commitment job grazing, one can pursue recreational pursuits into the years previously occupied by traditional adult responsibilities: marriage, careers, parenting, and even home ownership.

Some might say YOLO. Life isn’t as short as we think, but our ability to get ahead might be.

November 7, 2022December 18, 2022

The Anticipation Of The Thing Is Greater Than The Thing

We are prone to believing that outcomes will have stronger emotional impacts on us than they often do. This state of expectation, or impact bias, highlights why anticipation of an event is a much more palpable emotion than the event itself. The impact bias can lead to behaviors that make us less content despite our best efforts for happiness.

Let’s learn more about how to recognize this bias and make better decisions for our future.

November 8, 2021November 9, 2021

Wealth Inequality: Can We Solve This?

Believe it or not, most Americans are in better financial shape as a result of the pandemic. America has a cash glut. Is this the moment to shift the tides of wealth inequality?

Both the Trump and Biden administrations have pumped trillions of dollars into the economy via stimulus packages. Home values are exploding, a windfall for existing homeowners. The stock market has been absolutely crushing it, inflating the net worth of investors and widening the wealth inequality gap between investors and non-investors. Plus, with pandemic restrictions, we’ve simply been spending less.

Those that are home owners, stock market investors, and beneficiaries of the 2020 and 2021 stimulus checks have seen their income and net worth rise dramatically since 2019.

Who’da thunk it? And where do we go from here?

May 31, 2021May 29, 2023

Six Important Reasons Not to Retire Early

When I first discovered financial independence, the thought to retire in my 30s warmed my soul like a batch of hot stew on a late February night. If I could rely on the wondrous and fantastic powers of compound growth to build a bitchin’ snowball of money, I’d never need to work again.

And it was never about the money. It was about the life. I yearned for a life spent in pursuit of passion, surrounded by a vibrant and meaningful community, with copious time to immerse in nature, climb, travel, and most importantly…sleep. The rigid and mechanical pipeline of school to work was cracked and beginning to leak.

So, what’s not to love?

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021

Emotional Fragility: Is This the New Normal?

Until the advent of the Scientific Revolution and the pronounced growth of technology and tools of human innovation, the vast majority of humans lived in squalid conditions of abject poverty. Picture your modern neighbor with three garages filled with late-model cars, his-and-her jet-skis, and a really impressive angle grinder. In 1437 this same middle-class citizen would be just another expendable, filth-ridden pawn serving some narcissistic warlord. He likely lived with his family in fetid conditions, in very poor health, with a narrow range of skills necessary to provide life or keep from being brutally executed in front of blood-thirsty neighbors hungry for a good-ole’-fashioned Saturday rip-about. Life was extremely difficult for the vast majority of humanity until very recently. Emotional fragility was not a useful trait.

Life, without question, sucked.

Today, developed societies have everything. We squabble over macronutrient ratios and the pros and cons of carbs while failing to appreciate that our ancestors would have dropped dead of a heart attack if they stepped into a Costco or the produce section at Whole Foods. We have vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers that vacuum and mow without us even being present! The internet provides endless information and the ability to make (in theory) well-informed choices and decisions to better our lives.

Life is unquestionably better and easier in modern times. Yet for so many of us…life still sucks. We aren’t happy, and we’re getting less happy every year.

Why are we so unhappy when life is so much easier? Are we becoming an emotionally fragile society?

October 26, 2020October 25, 2020

Contentment: The Greenest Grass of the Them All

I’ll admit. I thought that quitting my job would lead to hours of newfound productivity. I will write for hours. Now I’ll double down on web design skills. I’ll climb more, and I’ll rest more. I’ll dust off my 15-year-old gear and start writing and recording music again. Once I don’t have a job I’ll truly find contentment.

The truth is, I’m largely the same guy I was in January, weeks before I walked away from my job.

Is that a bad thing?

Tag: contentment