Happier

Table of Contents

1 What is happiness

Pleasure and meaning are central to living a happy and fulfilled life.

  • Meaningful: To set appropriate goals

Four archetypes of happiness

  • rat-race archetype
    • Pursues the future benefit and neglects present benefit.
    • The painful path must be taken before being able to attain future happiness
  • hedonism archetype: Opposite to the rat-race archetype
    • Only values present benefit and ignores future benefit.
  • nihilism archetype
    • Neither enjoys what they have in the present, nor have any hope for the future.
    • Have lost faith and desire in life.
  • happiness archetype

2 Meaning, Pleasure, Strength(MPS)

Begin by writing three answers:

  • What do I find meaningful? e.g. writing, music, working with kids, solving problems.
  • Where do I find pleasure? e.g. horseback riding, reading, music and time with children.
  • Where are my strengths? e.g. empathy, problem solving and getting along with kids.

Notice the overlaps – working with kids for example. Your strengths might be highly organized, enjoy planning and love to travel. Then, you might decide to become a music teacher.

3 Relationships

The more effort you put into cultivating meaningful relationships in your life, The happier you will be. Key points:

  • Sharing joy is pleasurable experience
  • Sharing sorrow can be comforting during painful times.
  • A hedonistic relationship that's solely focused on pleasure will rapidly lose its meaning.
  • A relationship based on shared values but lacking pleasure will also struggle.

4 At work

  • Creating flow experiences. Let flow happen naturally.
    • Flow: immersed in an experience.
    • By Adjusting our work tasks to make their level of difficulty match our personal skills.
  • Using the MPS process to find a job or make life decisions.
  • Developing/Cultivating a sense of purpose.

5 In life

  • Cultivating love over finding love
  • Creating an invisible circle of happiness around ourselves.
  • Cultivating "happiness boosters" as a daily habit. Finding small habits that provide us happy experiences.