Doing Nothing May Feel Easy, but It Makes You Unhappy!

By Mel Robbins

Our human behavior of taking the easy path actually makes no sense. By chasing easy pleasures, we lose happiness.

Study after study has found that passive activities, such as surfing the web in your pajamas or watching a marathon of Mad Men episodes, actually makes you unhappy compared with doing something active. Kids, for example, are much happier playing a sport instead of parking themselves in front of the television. In fact, they experience a higher level of enjoyment that brings increased benefits to their mind and body (what researchers call “elevated excitement”) when they play sports.

Despite that fact, when given the choice, kids are four times more likely to watch TV than head outside to kick a ball around. You are exactly the same. You love it once you are exercising, cleaning out your closets, or working on your resume, but knowing that fact is rarely enough to push you off your ass to do it. Why would we spend four times more time doing something that has less than half the chance of making us feel good?

2011 speaker Mel Robbins is host of the daily syndicated radio show, “The Mel Robbins Show” and best-selling author of ”STOP SAYING YOU’RE FINE: The No BS Guide To Getting What You Want.” She is also a monthly columnist for SUCCESS Magazine.