I think the secret actually consists of having a good set of aesthetic judgments and emotional reactions. The power of these things is precisely that they're in

I think the secret actually consists of having a good set of aesthetic judgments and emotional reactions. The power of these things is precisely that they're involuntary reactions which push or pull you to do the right thing. Thus they are indispensable for all those moments when your intellect and will are insufficient. The difficulty is that you can't reason yourself into having them, but must nurture them by other means. This used to be one of the primary goals of education, and is the primary value of a (proper) liberal arts education, as opposed to "critical thinking" skills. The Stoics wrote about the importance of cultivating a contempt for pleasure. The Christians teach that you should "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John 2:15). Understood naively, these statements are a sure recipe for unhappiness and disaster. But properly understood, within a healthy aesthetic framework and with emotions trained in accordance to it, these statements obviously contain a large chunk of the secret to happiness and success. I recommend watching this video for an extended introduction to this way of thinking: https://youtu.be/tX5e6eSkaMc https://youtu.be/tX5e6eSkaMc