Reddit reviews The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander

Okay, so I will try to post something here that I haven't already posted (also because my sim doesn't start for another 2 hours and I'm bored).

These two posts sum it up pretty good I think (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2jex7k/teenagers_of_reddit_what_is_the_biggest_current/clbbw4l) and here (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2jex7k/teenagers_of_reddit_what_is_the_biggest_current/clbbdcb).

But here's something I didn't post yet. In my humble opinion, the key to human happiness is two-fold: creativity, and human relationships.

1. Creativity. One of the hallmarks of human behavior that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is creativity. Every culture on Earth has some form of artistic expression, such as music, painting, cultural dances, festivals, or food presentation or what have you. Even black slaves at the height of the slave trade still found ways to express themselves creatively through keeping secret journals, risking severe punishment and even their lives. Hell, even cavemen--the earliest human beings--expressed themselves through cave paintings. So I think in order for someone to be truly happy, they should have a creative outlet. That could be something like playing guitar, water color painting, writing poetry, designing a sky scraper, writing a mobile app, designing and building a deck for your house or a deer stand for hunting--or even starting a family and making it the best possible family you can. For me, I put my creative power into my sailboat and have all these projects--varnishing, painting, sanding, cleaning, maintenance--all those kinds of things actually become a creative expression of my mind. And it makes me happy.
   
   
2. Human relationships. There is a book call The Mission, The Men, and Me (which is a great book about leadership, found here: http://amzn.com/B003XQEVWQ). One of the military lessons learned there is that "Nothing is a reality unless it's shared." The Author was referring to battlefield intel, in that if you know something about the enemy, it might as well not even be true if only you know it. You need to disseminate that intel to everyone else, otherwise if you're the only guy who knows it, it effectively becomes useless information. Well, I took that a step further and realized that it applies to human relationships as well. Nothing is a reality unless it's shared. That's why social networks are so popular: everyone wants to share their reality with other people, otherwise it doesn't feel as real. There could be a lot said about keeping things private (like mental snapshots instead of instagramming everything), but the point I'm trying to make is that we, as humans, are social creatures. And if we try to isolate ourselves from other humans, we can't share our realities with them and it begins to feel like we're not real. You ever read or watched the book/movie "Into the Wild"? It's a true story what happened, and as that kid lay dying in the Alaskan Wilderness, he wrote in his journal: "Happiness is only real when it's shared." (http://youtu.be/x2k-oo2TT-0?t=2m3s). Sharing experiences with someone else makes it warmer, partly because I think that's hardwired into our DNA.
   
   So really, I think the key to happiness revolves around creativity (something that you focus your own energy into, and you do yourself) and human relationships (something that requires human interaction and you participate in with others). And if you combine the two, it's pretty much a guaranteed life of happiness.

This. And Afghanistan has been the SEALs playground for awhile.

2 great books by Delta Os, BTW:

Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man

The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander