the question is how to maximize it, and make it sustainable.
on a day-to-day basis there seems to be two discrete things that do so:
i) something nice happens unexpectedly. if i throw out all my expectations, expect the worst all the time, then arguably i can be happy quite a lot of times.
ii) i set a goal and i actually attain it.
i'm sure there are more, like being grateful for life, meditating on our existence, etc etc but in terms of discrete matters most seem to fall in one of the two categories.
the difficult intellectual leap is that by making others happy, it makes me happy (or even happier).
and the argument that needs to be made is that this kind of "giving" is more sustainable then let's say, trying to make more and more money every day.
if we were to do a nice deed that someone appreciated every day, i can see why it gives us a little "happiness hit" every time. but doesn't that get boring and eventually it means not much, and i need to do crazier and crazier nice deeds to get the same high? if we were to get a daily paycheck, would that be a decent equivalent?
