Why a Bit of Restraint Can Do You a Lot of Good
Takeaways:
We are in a “National happiness funk.” Why? Brooks believes that it has to do with our self-control, citing studies that show low self-control is directly correlated with lower well-being.
Brooks argues that culture today encourages us to relax our sense of self-control to get happier, leading to an unfortunate result that makes us unhappier as individuals, and therefore as a country.
Brooks notes three common influences pushing us to suspend self-control: excess alcohol consumption, anonymity online (which can encourage antisocial and corrosive behavior), and the addictive ability of social media to make one feel more powerful/important than they are.
The notion that self-control creates happiness is not new. Benjamin Franklin said, “Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.”
While the suppression of immediate desires may seem contrived or inauthentic, greater self control should actually be viewed as the most authentic thing you can do– and in fact, creates an authentically better version of ourselves.
From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
Read the whole story.
Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.