Shortcuts to Happiness?

According to various studies performed by psychologists, human brains produce happy brain chemicals while experiencing 'flow' or while being 'in the zone' while and after achieving goals of moderate and above difficulty. Humans seem to thrive on overcoming obstacles, but I wonder if there are shortcuts to happiness that don't require having to continuous overcome obstacles? Is it absolutely necessary to continually overcome obstacles to be happy? It just seems so convoluted and bizarre that humans have to engage in certain pointless activities such as climbing Mt Everest or running marathons to experience happiness. I suppose there's no way around the fact that I have to continually overcome obstacles just to remain happy. Being naturally lazy myself conflicts with having to do stuff in order to be happy. Also, my brain often rationalizes certain pointless goals all for the sake of achieving certain pointless goals as being absurd (see my post about the Effi0-Absurdity Paradox). I suppose I must tell my brain that for the sake of my well-being, I have to yield to my human need to achieve in order to be happy. I suppose one shortcut is to pursue things that pique my interest without over-analyzing the meaning behind it and without thinking if it's absurd. I already know eating well and exercising promotes happiness, so I should continue my pursuit of obtaining optimal health through eating well and exercising. Perhaps taking legal happy pills is another viable shortcut to happiness that I should investigate? Transcendental meditation and eastern philosophy may provide some answers?

Why is overcoming certain obstacles more noble than others? Why is the brain buzz a gamer experiences considered lesser than the buzz an avid reader of literature experiences? I don't know, and I shouldn't care. We all draw happiness from doing different things for different reasons; from one person's perspective, the things we derive happiness from may seem totally absurd while from another person's perspective it may seem like a no-brainer. However, we shouldn't have to justify the 'lesser' activities that provide us with happiness. Society attaches all sorts of stigmas and ennoblements to everything, but we should ultimately ask ourselves if deep down we truly enjoy the things we engage in.

Effio-Absurdity Paradox

The effio-absurdity paradox (EAP) is a term I coined while thinking about how some people consider enjoying watching football games as being absurd because it’s just a bunch of guys running around tackling each other and blah blah blah. EAP refers to the reduction of enjoyment derived from certain things due to realizing their absurdity and/or due to being unable to explain why we enjoy them. For example, one may be enjoying a game of golf only to realize that swinging a tiny ball with a stick into holes is absurd, which leads to a reduction of enjoyment of playing golf. Cynical and analytical people seem to be prone to experience EAP.

Anything can be considered absurd. People often complain about how most TV shows are shallow and mindless. Do all shows have to be full of deep meaning and be highly intellectually stimulating? Actually, so called mindless shows can lead to great intellectual stimulation if one analyzes the show in a way that leads to great insights about human behavior. But that’s beside the point. The point is we all enjoy certain activities mostly because the chemicals in our brains compel us to do pursue certain activities and humans have a tendency to defend their absurd preferences while declaring others’ preferences as absurd. EAP constricts one’s world and can lead to depression because it’s a buzz kill mindset that seeks reasons for not liking things on the basis of it being absurd, but what in life isn’t absurd?