3164: How to Make Life More Pleasurable by David Cain of Raptitude on Self-Improvement & Personal Growth

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[00:01:32] This is optimal living daily episode 31 64 how to make life more pleasurable by David Kane of raptitude.com

[00:01:40] and I'm your narrator Justin Malik reading you blogs every single day of the year including holidays to give you and me a bit more

[00:01:48] motivation

[00:01:49] inspiration or happiness today

[00:01:52] So with that let's get right to it as we optimize your life

[00:01:56] How to make life more pleasurable by David Kane of raptitude.com

[00:02:06] Throughout my grade school years, I noticed a pattern whenever classes started again

[00:02:12] Sleep became much more enjoyable

[00:02:15] Felt like such a gift to discover by peeking at my alarm clock that I had another 18 sweet minutes of blanket time before the alarm went

[00:02:23] Each one was a treat

[00:02:26] Obviously sleep became more pleasurable because it became more precious

[00:02:30] I was busier and couldn't overindulge in it as I apparently had during summer holidays

[00:02:35] I also noticed that whenever the English teacher assigned a novel about people living during scarce times like wars or droughts

[00:02:43] My own food tasted better and I found real satisfaction in simple things like potatoes or rice

[00:02:50] History class gave me a similar appreciation for tea and spices after hearing about how precious and coveted they were in the West

[00:02:58] We have a little more reverence for the experience itself a pinch of tea or a few ground peppercorns

[00:03:04] Can make you feel rich and fortunate even if they came from a bin at bulk barn

[00:03:09] And why shouldn't they they still deliver the same pleasure to human taste buds

[00:03:13] This effect was always so fascinating to me how the pleasure we derive from something

[00:03:19] Expands and contracts with its context in our minds when we're able to view something as an occasional

[00:03:25] Luxury we get more out of it than when we view it as cheap and abundant regardless of whether it really is cheap and abundant

[00:03:34] Recently I stopped drinking coffee daily and now when I do have a cup. I enjoy it much more

[00:03:40] It's just as available to me as it always was but when it's not a ubiquitous part of my experience

[00:03:46] The pleasure of it is much greater

[00:03:49] This pattern has happened elsewhere too a year or two ago

[00:03:53] I went through a phase when I always had wine in the house now

[00:03:56] It's back to special occasion status and it's much more enjoyable

[00:04:00] Sweets and desserts too the more occasional they become

[00:04:04] The better they taste and the less I crave them

[00:04:08] It's made me realize that there's something to be gained in deliberately limiting our pleasures

[00:04:12] Not for any moral purpose or to conserve money health or the environment

[00:04:17] But simply because making our pleasures more occasional makes them more pleasurable

[00:04:23] For example, we'd probably derive more pleasure from eating if most of our meals weren't delicious

[00:04:30] When the typical meal is delicious a basic eaten for sustenance meal becomes an annoyance and few meals are special

[00:04:38] When most meals are basic the pleasure of simply eating has a chance to come through and delicious meals

[00:04:45] ones with prominent salt fat or sugar

[00:04:48] Become pleasurable in a way. They can't be when they're the norm

[00:04:52] I know I enjoyed movies and music more when there was no unlimited

[00:04:57] Always-on streaming service piping them into my home when you had to wait for your favorite song to come on the radio again

[00:05:03] Or physically travel to a store and buy the album that song delivered greater pleasure than it does today

[00:05:09] Coming through Spotify at your command when you had to wander the carpeted aisles of blockbuster video to select

[00:05:16] Which a little box of entertainment would define your night you valued it more and got more out of it

[00:05:22] When pleasures are more occasional

[00:05:24] They're more pleasurable and that's reason enough to limit how often we indulge in them

[00:05:29] Of course all the usual reasons we exercise restraint to save money time health in the planet

[00:05:36] Only add to the rewards

[00:05:38] That's been my experience anyway, but I don't think I'm an exception

[00:05:42] Along with most people listening to this

[00:05:44] I live in what is probably as seen from the outside a very strange bubble of human existence

[00:05:51] post-World War two Western consumer society in this strange bubble

[00:05:56] enormous marketing departments have had many decades to figure out how to deliver as large volume of pleasure-inducing

[00:06:04] substances and services into our homes and routines as we will accept

[00:06:08] This relentless pressure to take on treat upon treat year upon year has pushed the typical level of pleasure consumption to a point

[00:06:16] Far beyond was actually most pleasurable for most of us

[00:06:20] Time travelers from cultures unlike ours would be baffled by our obsessive and self-defeating relationship to pleasure products

[00:06:27] They might find it absurd that millions of us claim we just aren't ourselves without a morning cup of hot extract from the roasted seas of an exotic

[00:06:35] East African berry or that sugar which used to cost a fortune per pound is so abundant in the food supply

[00:06:42] That is difficult to keep dangerous amounts of it from entering our bodies

[00:06:46] For those of us who were born in this strangely pleasure-focused bubble

[00:06:50] It's hard to move away from familiar pleasures without believing it will be some kind of sacrifice

[00:06:56] I'll be healthier wealthier and will live longer, but life will be less good

[00:07:02] But so far whenever I do move that way the opposite happens

[00:07:07] The more occasionally I indulge in something made just for pleasure

[00:07:11] The more worthwhile it is when I do and the better life is in every other respect is cheaper

[00:07:19] safer healthier

[00:07:21] Freer it just seems like a better deal and it's there if we want it

[00:07:26] You just listened to the post titled how to make life more pleasurable by David Kane of raptitude.com

[00:07:37] And I'll be right back with my commentary

[00:07:39] Thank you to David

[00:07:41] He talked about how when we always have things on demand like our favorite songs or movies or shows

[00:07:48] As opposed to having to go down to your local blockbuster video to rent it

[00:07:52] It sort of adds a layer of appreciation

[00:07:55] By the way fun fact my first job was at blockbuster video

[00:08:00] Where I happened to walk into a armed robbery in progress another story for another day

[00:08:06] Anyway, he also made that argument about food if we're always having the best it ends up becoming your normal

[00:08:14] Which brings the quote-unquote best down to like a five out of ten instead of an eight or nine or ten out of ten

[00:08:23] He says that if we had just okay food most of the time then we'd really appreciate those really tasty meals

[00:08:30] It's hard to argue with that especially if you've moved a lot or changed environments or jobs or have a lot of life

[00:08:38] Experience in different ways what inevitably happens to everyone

[00:08:42] I've known is that their life becomes normalized no matter the situation and then to get to that next level of special

[00:08:50] Something new has to come along again

[00:08:53] You know that isn't to say that we should then make our lives miserable in an effort to make the rare occasions extra happy

[00:09:00] That doesn't really make sense, but this idea applies to things like new cars

[00:09:06] Knowing this phenomenon does it make sense to work so many hours to buy that ultra luxury car

[00:09:12] If it's just going to end up being normalized

[00:09:15] Maybe a different solution is to keep your car and then once a month

[00:09:21] Rent an ultra luxury car

[00:09:23] So you get the thrill and excitement of having the new car for a bit and only for a little time

[00:09:28] So it never becomes normalized. I don't know. It's just an idea. That's just one example

[00:09:33] I'm sure there are many more if you have any do send them my way

[00:09:37] I'd love to hear them and I can even share them in my newsletter

[00:09:40] Which you can join for free by the way at old podcast comm

[00:09:45] But that should do for today have a great rest of your day

[00:09:48] And I'll see you back here for the Wednesday show tomorrow where your optimal life awaits