---
title: "Julian Simon’s Good Mood"
#feed_description: 
author: Issa Rice
creation_date: 2015-05-23
last_major_revision_date: 2015-05-23
language: English
# accepts "notes", "draft", "in progress", or "mostly finished"
status: notes
# accepts "certain", "highly likely", "likely", "possible", "unlikely",
# "highly unlikely", "remote", "impossible", "log", "emotional", or
# "fiction"
belief: possible
# accepts "CC0", "CC-BY", or "CC-BY-SA"
license: CC-BY
tags: depression
#aliases: 
---

From [this](http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Good_Mood/Part_II/chapte13.html) chapter:

> As to the consequences of not doing what you think you "must," ask
> yourself: Why must you finish college? Will you be unable to make a
> living if you don't? Will people you like refuse your company if you
> don't? Will you be a bad person if you don't? Or do you think you must
> finish college because a relative once told you that you "must," when
> you were a child?
> 
> You may experience an extraordinary sense of relief when you suddenly
> conclude that you <u>don't</u> have to do something or be something you
> believed that you "must." You can feel free as a bird and light as a
> feather after feeling weighted down and overloaded by the unwelcome
> burden. Try for yourself! Ask yourself honestly: Why <u>must</u> I do ---- ?
> And what will happen if I don't?