This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 302, Living A Life Of Joy by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com and I'm Justin Molick. Welcome to Optimal Living Daily where I read to you every single day, even on weekends and holidays, reading to you from the best blogs and books I can find without the permission. Sometimes I wonder why I thought it'd be a good idea to do a daily show, it's been a lot of work to say the least. And on that note, I'm not gonna waste any time, so let's jump right into the post and start optimizing your life.
Living A Life Of Joy by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com. How do you know when you're living your purpose, when your present moments begin to feel perfect? When you live on purpose, your relationship with time changes dramatically. You'll no longer be looking for happiness somewhere in the future, you'll stop saying to yourself, once X happens, then I'll be where I wanna be, then I'll be happy.
Instead, you will look to your present and say, this is exactly where I wanna be right now and nowhere else, nothing could be more perfect than this precise moment. The emotion that accompanies this state is joy. Joy results from total acceptance of your present moment. Whenever you project your consciousness away from the present moment and seek happiness in another time or place, you leave joy behind.
When all parts of your being fully embraced where you are right now, you can't help but feel joyful. Most likely you haven't reached the state yet, but it's well within your capability to do so. You can reach it by following your internal compass, by assessing your current emotional state and comparing it to the state of joy. You can get a sense of your distance from the state.
You can pinpoint where you are at any time along the levels of consciousness scale. Inner peace is right next to joy. Neutrality is a little further out. Far beyond that lies anger and really far away is fear.
The more powerless you feel, the further you are from joy and the more you're resisting, what is. If you are far away from joy, you cannot simply jump to this state immediately and stay there for long. You might be able to experience it temporarily such as through meditation, but the circumstances of your life will soon pull you back to your previous level. But with conscious intent, you can eventually reach the state and make it your default.
And the way you do this is to keep re-pointing your life in the direction of joy by making better decisions. Whenever you're faced with a decision, even seemingly mundane one such as what to eat for your next meal, choose the option that brings you closest to joy. That'll be the option that makes you feel the most powerful. It will not necessarily be what makes you feel joyful, especially if you're currently in a very negative state.
If you're currently depressed, you may have zero choices that'll produce joy in this moment, but you will have some choice that makes you feel more powerful and alive than others. And that is the choice that will turn your life in the direction of joy. If you're feeling fearful and worried, perhaps the best action you can find is one which makes you feel greedy or angry. That is perfectly fine.
Greed and anger are both higher states than fear. They are closer to joy. They're not fear since they'll turn you in the direction of joy and soon you'll be able to progress beyond anger. Do not beat yourself up if a seemingly negative state like anger is the best you can muster at this time in your life.
You cannot expect any more from yourself than your best. The anger will pass and you'll soon be able to climb the ladder towards more positive states. If you are in a deep negative state such as depression, you'll have to pass through higher negative states first before you can reach the positive ones. So going from depression to anger is a very positive step in the right direction.
If you proceed in this manner with every decision you can, eventually you will reach the state of joy. It may take some time, but you will eventually reach it and make it your default state. Joy is in fact your natural state of being. Babies enter the state very easily because they're fully in the present moment.
They do not seek themselves in the past or future. When you are joyful, your life flows with ease and lightness. Existence is no longer a struggle. Why?
Because when you stop resisting the present moment, you stop creating problems for yourself. Resistance creates internal problems like stress, fear, and disease, but it also creates external problems like conflict, scarcity, and injustice. When you learn to choose the direction that creates the most joy in your life, your life will become a joyful experience in each and every moment. And of course it is easy to accept and embrace any present moment in which you feel joyful so the state will naturally perpetuate itself.
Joyful feelings create joyful actions which produce more joyful feelings. The state of joy enables you to stop worrying about your survival, to stop fearing what may or may not happen, and to stop fighting your present moments. You'll find it easier and easier to satisfy your needs. This will allow you to direct your consciousness outward and interact with the world without fear.
People will seem much less threatening to you. Even strangers will smile at you more because they'll pick up on your joyful state. Positive people will be drawn to you like a magnet and you'll soon find your life filled with empowering relationships. All the support you need will come to you.
And this in turn will give you the energy and drive to embrace your true purpose. Simply make decisions that bring you as close to joy as possible, even if it seems very distant at first, and soon you'll find your life becoming more joyful. You have free will though, so at any moment you can decide to move towards joy or away from it. The choice is yours.
You just listen to the post title Living a Life of Joy by Steve Pevlina of StevePevlina.com. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it. One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers in their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins.
Plus it used to cost $499 right now, it's just $199. And head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership. While I was reading that, I couldn't help but think, well, eating ice cream for dinner would bring me joy, so does that mean I should do that? But when thinking about that a little more, maybe one spoon would bring the joy, but after that I don't think it would, because I know how bad that would be to have ice cream for dinner.
So yeah, I think I get what he's saying here, I just haven't heard it presented in this way. I'll have to think about this some more and maybe read it again. In that wraps up today's episode, if you want to find me online, support the show financially or otherwise, send a message, any of that stuff, just come by oldpodcast.com. You can reach me there and you can see how to show your support, if you're interested in doing that.
And Saturday, so keep this nice and short, so we can enjoy the weekend, have a great one, and I'll see you in the Sunday show tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. Hey, this is Dan from the Optimal Finance Daily podcast, which is a lot like the show, except more focused on personal finance. Justin handpicks the best post he can find from blogs and authors like Ramit Sadhi, Mr. Money mustache and more, and I read them to you five days a week.
So if you enjoyed this podcast, come on over and subscribe to Optimal Finance Daily too. And together, we'll optimize your financial life. You've been listening to Optimal Living Daily, be sure to hit the subscribe button to stay up to date on each new episode, and head to oldpodcast.com. That's OLDpodcast.com for a free gift, as well as more actionable tips and resources to help you maximize your potential.
Thanks for joining us, and remember, your optimal life awaits.