John Hawkins of RightWingNews is known for “lists”. Lists of what not to do, lists of what to do, interesting stuff lists, advice lists….this one is a good read. A seven-step process to keep you in the bottom quarter of the misery index (success at being sad?):
1) Don’t pursue your ideal self
Abraham Maslow once said, “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
2) Isolate yourself.
People are flighty, they go away, they let you down…
3) Make other people responsible for your happiness.
Do you know who cares as much as you do about your happiness?…
4) Spend a lot of time focused on things you can’t control.
Worrying will wear you down under the best of circumstances, but if you really want to ramp your frustration level up to 11, spend your time worrying about things you can’t control…
5) Think short term all the time.
Everybody thinks short term sometimes, but the true experts at making themselves miserable have turned it into an art form…
6) Become attached.
Buddhists believe that the principle cause of suffering is attachment…
7) Focus on the bad, not the good.
Find me the happiest human beings you know and get them to spend an hour thinking about the people in their lives that they care about who are no longer around, the things they want out of life that they don’t have, their biggest failures, their biggest disappointments, how they’ve let people down, what they lack and why they should be depressed and by the time they’re done, they’ll be completely despondent.
Oh, you want the examples that go with the above steps? Go read the whole thing.
