iCharlesSubscribeLetterAccompanying: Summary · Worksheet
Natural Law and Happiness: Remove Before You Add
Charles Botensten
Summary
Remove Before You Add
Pleasure, purchases and more apps keep promising happiness. Natural law points the other way.
We live in an addition economy.
Pleasure, purchases and more apps keep promising happiness. Natural law points the other way.
The problem
Almost everything around us pulls us away from how we were made, and we pay for the distance.
The usual fix
Then we look for something to add that fixes it. Adding is always easier than removing.
The move
You already know what has to go. Do a one-minute review every day. Then pick the top one. One change, not five.
Addition vs Subtraction
- Addition: A new iPhone · The newest AI model · A pill
- Subtraction: Social media off the phone · Crappy food out · Distractions out
Worth keeping
- Deep down, you already know.
- Habits are things that happen to us. Routines are things we do.
- Being content is the most pleasurable feeling in life.
The review
- What do I need to stop doing?
- What do I need to start doing?
- What do I need to continue doing?
- Then pick the top one.
Accompanying
The Witness Stand: Remove Before You Add
Every area of my life where I moved closer to natural law got better.
From “Natural Law and Happiness: Remove Before You Add”
1. Sleep, food, movement, relationships, work: which one is furthest from how you were made?
2. What has that distance cost you in the last 30 days? Write a number, a name or a date.
3. What have you added to fix it: the purchase, the app, the pill?
4. Write the line you tell yourself that keeps it in place, like “It's just a game on Sunday.”
5. Deep down, you already know. What is the one thing to remove first?
6. Where and when will you do your one-minute review each day?
7. Pick one: an action with a date, an if-then, or a block on your calendar.Questions people ask
- Is “Remove Before You Add” free?
- Yes. The whole summary is on this page, in full: no paywall, no email box, nothing held back. Copy it and use it.
- Where does it come from?
- Charles Botensten built it and uses it himself. He explains it in “Natural Law and Happiness: Remove Before You Add”, published October 23, 2026.
- Can I change it?
- Yes. It is a starting point from his own work: change the names, numbers and steps so it fits yours, then run it.