How to Be Content in Life: Three Paradoxes

Humans suck. We are impossible to please. We have so many conflicting needs and desires, it’s a marvel that we can even wipe the correct ass.

I’ve long written about how humans evolved to be constantly dissatisfied in some way. I’ve written about how, in life, it’s impossible to escape suffering. In fact, in one of the most popular sections of my book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Disappointment Panda says: “Life is essentially an endless series of problems-the solution to one problem is merely the creation of the next. Don’t hope for a life without problems. Hope for a life full of good problems.”

We all experience this. The anxiety of needing to make money doesn’t go away once we’re successful-it instead morphs into an anxiety of not losing money. Feelings of inadequacy when we’re single don’t leave when we find a partner-instead, we begin to feel inadequate for our partner. We oscillate between wanting to be alone and wanting to be with others, from feeling as though we deserve good things to feeling guilty for those good things, from feeling anxious about the future and feeling bored about the future.

Can we ever win? Or are we doomed to always be dissatisfied? Is there never a perfect amount of pizza that we can eat without hating ourselves?