4.7 • 13K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2021
⏱️ 3 minutes
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0:00.0 | I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier. |
0:03.0 | As I've studied happiness and human nature, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how |
0:07.8 | we can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive and more creative. |
0:12.8 | And one thing I believe very strongly, and it becomes clear to me all the time, is that |
0:18.3 | to be happy we must build our lives on the foundation of our own nature, our own interests, |
0:25.4 | our own temperament. |
0:27.4 | There's no magic one size fits all solution. |
0:30.5 | We each must decide what's true for us. |
0:34.2 | Because I talk about this theme frequently and think about it all the time, there's |
0:37.8 | an old story from Greek mythology that I love to invoke, the story of the bed of pro crusties. |
0:45.6 | This story is often used to illustrate the danger of trying to pressure everyone to |
0:49.2 | fit into a single approach. |
0:52.0 | If you don't know it, here is my version of that ancient story. |
0:57.6 | Once upon a time there lived the owner of a small estate that was located on a busy road, |
1:03.1 | the sacred way between Athens and Ellucius. |
1:06.9 | This man was named Pro crusties, which means the stretcher, and he was cruel and vicious. |
1:13.8 | When travelers passed on the road, he invited them into his house, gave them a generous dinner, |
1:18.9 | and then asked them to spend the night in his special iron bed. |
1:23.5 | No visitor ever fit that bed exactly, so to make them fit, he'd stretch the bodies of |
1:29.5 | the visitors or amputate their limbs so they'd fit exactly. |
1:34.4 | Any other way, his guests would die. |
1:38.3 | Eventually he was killed by the hero, Thesius, who fit pro crusties to his own bed. |
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