Being reactive doesn’t just hurt your chances of getting what you want; it also reduces your chances of real happiness. Research shows we often don’t choose to do what really makes us happy; we choose what’s easy. Mihály Csikszentmihályi found that watching TV made teenagers truly happy 13 percent of the time. Hobbies scored 34 percent and sports or games got 44 percent. But what did teens choose to do most often? They spent four times as many hours watching television. Without a plan, we do what’s passive and easy—not what is really fulfilling.
