Eric-Jorgenson The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant indd

Why not two?
You’ll be distracted.
Even one is hard enough. Being peaceful comes from having 
your mind clear of thoughts. And a lot of clarity comes from 
being in the present moment. It’s very hard to be in the present 
moment if you’re thinking, “I need to do this. I want that. This 
has got to change.” [8]
You always have three options: you can change it, you can 
accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to 
sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, 
wishing you could leave it but not leaving it and not accept-
ing it. That struggle or aversion is responsible for most of our 
misery. The phrase I probably use the most to myself in my 
head is just one word: “accept.” [5]
What does acceptance look like to you?
It’s to be okay whatever the outcome is. It’s to be balanced and 
centered. It’s to step back and to see the grander scheme of things.
We don’t always get what we want, but sometimes what is hap-
pening is for the best. The sooner you can accept it as a reality, 
the sooner you can adapt to it.
Achieving acceptance is very difficult. I have a couple of hacks 
I try, but I wouldn’t say they are totally successful.

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L E A R N I N G H A P P I N E S S · 153
One hack is stepping back and looking at previous bits of 
suffering I’ve had in my life. I write them down. “Last time 
you broke up with somebody, last time you had a business 
failure, last time you had a health issue, what happened?” I 
can trace the growth and improvement that came from it 
years later.
I have another hack I use for minor annoyances. When they 
happen, a part of me will instantly react negatively. But I’ve 
learned to mentally ask myself, “What is the positive of this 
situation?”
“Okay, I’ll be late for a meeting. But what is the benefit to me? 
I get to relax and watch the birds for a moment. I’ll also spend 
less time in that boring meeting.” There’s almost always some-
thing positive.
Even if you can’t come up with something positive, you can say, 
“Well, the Universe is going to teach me something now. Now 
I get to listen and learn.”
To give you the simplest example: I was at an event and after-
ward, someone flooded my inbox with a whole bunch of photos 
they took.
There was a tiny instant judgment saying, “Come on, couldn’t 
you have just selected a few of the best? Who sends a hun-
dred photos?” But then immediately I asked myself, “What is 
the positive?” The positive is that I get to pick my five favorite 
photos. I get to use my judgment.
Over the last year, by practicing this hack enough, I’ve managed 
to go from taking a couple of seconds to think of a response, to 

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154 · T H E A L M A N A C K O F N A V A L R A V I K A N T
now my brain doing it almost instantaneously. That’s a habit 
you can train yourself to do. [8]