The Three Things You Need.

I was listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast with Naval Ravikant a few months ago. Naval mentioned a quote that caught my attention. To paraphrase what he said, to live a happy life, you should find a hobby that will keep you fit, a hobby that will make you money, and a hobby that makes you smart.

This idea is simple, elegant, and powerful because it covers all the bases for a happy and fulfilling life. Let me explain. According to Clayton Alderfer, there are three categories of human need: existence, relatedness, and growth. Existence covers the things that we need to have to live a healthy life. Relatedness is how we interact with our family, friends, and colleagues. And, growth is about our own self-esteem and our ability to maximize our potential. Our level of contentment is based on our ability to satisfy these needs. If we can find activities that will help us in each category, we will live healthy, happy, and rich lives.

Hobbies are things that we like to do. It makes perfect sense for us to benefit from the things we enjoy doing. We can even find hobbies that satisfy multiple human needs. The question is, how are we going to do find hobbies that will help us live a fulfilling life? The answer is we must try stuff. This is the only way for us to find the things that we like doing. Do the research and conduct short experiments on the stuff that interests you. Keep the stuff that works, disregard the things that don’t work.

Find a hobby that will help you become and stay fit. If you can, join a community that will support and encourage you to achieve your fitness goals. Let’s say you want to start running. You will reap the rewards of this exercise if you do it consistently. To increase your motivation, you can join online and offline communities that share your interest in the sport. This covers your existence and relatedness needs.

You can also try teaching. Technology has now empowered subject-matter experts to teach others what they know and is passionate about. This way, you can help others by sharing your experiences and know-how with people who are just starting. Another benefit of this is that our knowledge of a subject becomes significantly deeper once we teach it to others. All three categories of human need are satisfied when you teach because you learn, earn, and engage with people.

We live in an era full of possibilities. Modern technology allows us to access information, pursue a multitude of careers, and live a healthy lifestyle. Ultimately, it’s up to us to take advantage of the opportunities out there.