Reducing unhappiness isn't the same as being happy, and most people don't know the difference. In this episode of Behind the Village, we explore why avoiding what makes you unhappy only gets you to neutral, not fulfilled.

This is the introduction to our next podcast theme on hobbies and passions, where we break down one of the most important insights about happiness: you can spend your whole life removing sources of unhappiness, clearing your plate, avoiding discomfort, but at a certain point, there's nothing left to remove. You're just neutral. Real happiness requires actively pursuing something. It requires caring deeply about things outside of work, building communities around what you love, and making space for the hobbies and passions that give you something you can't get anywhere else.

You'll hear us discuss why hobbies aren't o ...