What a Hamburger Can Teach us About Happiness

We’ve all heard that life is like a box of chocolates. But happiness? Happiness, as it turns out, is a lot like a great hamburger.

A great hamburger isn’t just delicious. It also leaves you feeling good even after you’ve finished it. If it’s indulgent but makes you sick, you’ll regret it. If it’s healthy but bland, you won’t enjoy it. And if it’s bad all around, you won’t want to eat it at all. The best burger is when you get both: good taste and nourishment.

Happiness works in much the same way. As Tal Ben-Shahar explains in Happier, we increase our happiness when we work toward a destination we find meaningful and enjoy ourselves along the way.

Too often, though, we settle for the wrong burgers. The “rat racer” eats the bland burger of sacrifice, hoping it will all pay off someday. The “hedonist” chases the greasy fast-food burger of instant pleasure, only to feel worse after. And the “nihilist” is resigned to eating burgers without flavor or nourishment, convinced happiness isn’t possible at all.

The winning formula is choosing the burger that is both delicious and good for you. In life, it means filling our days with pursuits that we enjoy and that lead us closer to accomplishing goals that we deeply value.

At Easyfeast, that’s our philosophy too. Meals shouldn’t make you choose between joy today and health tomorrow – because the best food, like the best life, gives you both.

Inspired by the work of Tal Ben-Shahar, author of Happier