The Happiness Discovery

From 1991, Michael Crichton on the subject of happiness:

In fact, the more attention you lavish on yourself, the more unhappy you become. People focused on their bodies, their clothes, and their career aren't happy. Look around, and see if it isn't true. Devoting a lot of attention to yourself is actually a prescription for misery.

If you want to be happy, forget yourself. Forget all of it — how you look, how you feel, how your career is going. Just drop the whole subject of you. We all know this is true because we've all had the experience of doing some task — even cleaning the sock drawer or washing the dishes — and for a while, forgetting ourselves entirely. And when we blink our eyes and come back, we realize we've been happy.