Look. I know you think you were born damaged.

I know you’re convinced that you’re broken—that you're weak and pathetic—given your track record of reckless time wasting and procrastination.

I just want you to know—no, I need you to know—that none of that is true. You're not weak. You’re not broken—in fact, you’re the opposite of broken. You’re functioning exactly as you were designed.

All those vices you’ve been consuming… all that doomscrolling on Reddit, then YouTube, then TikTok... it’s just your way of pacifying and coping with the constant pain and unease you were born to feel 24/7.

And it’s not just you who feels it… It’s all of us.

So where does this unease and pain come from?

Why are we—when not distracting ourselves with our vices—so damn restless and unsatisfied?

I mean, it’s not like we’re lacking in anything fundamental. It’s not like we, in our day and age of comfort and security, have much of a reason to feel so consistently terrible, right?

Well, it’s kind of messed up, but us humans were designed to be perpetually unhappy.

More accurately, we just fell into being this way over millions of years of evolution. Like how natural selection brought us opposable thumbs and peripheral vision, the same survival forces brought us a constant background ache of discontent.

And the reason for that is simple: Motivation.

Evolution favored our discontented ancestors because they worked harder and were more likely to survive. Their hunger and discomfort fueled their motivation to get out there, take risks, use energy, and change things to their advantage.

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Credit: I first learned about this concept from the book Indistractable by Nir Eyal (great book, btw... def worth the read).

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Now, I know what you’re thinking.

"That’s all great for, like, cavemen or whatever, but this doesn’t apply to me. I’m miserable as hell, and yet I feel the opposite of motivation. Most if the time, all I feel is tired, lazy, and apathetic. Most of the time, I can barely make it out of bed."

Fine, but take a step back for a second. Look beyond your bubble and your daily self-discipline struggles. Consider the world around you, and put things into context.

Observe just how extensively our environment has changed since the days us humans roamed the grassy African savannahs or the snowy Siberian plains. When our nomadic ancestors were motivated to relieve their evolved discontent, when they decided to do something to scratch the uncomfortable itch of lacking and wanting... they had to work for it. They had to take on risks and endure long and dangerous missions and quests.

In their world of scarcity and danger, relief and reward never came easy. There was always a cost of time (days) + energy (thousands of calories) + risk (potential death). Costs and the rewards were finely balanced.

That’s just not true any more.