3 Paths To Happiness
I had the opportunity to do this one day course on Introduction to Positive Psychology the other day. One of the things I found most interesting is how much research is now being done on positive psychology and happiness.
In the past when you wanted to improve workspaces for staff there was always the idea that you should improve the space and make the staff happy. So you should have views, good break out facilities and so on. It seemed logical that this sort of thing would improve staff morale and therefore productivity and be good for the company. The trouble was you could never quantify the ‘feel good’ effect. Interestingly now they are doing research which confirms what we have known all along, happy, positive workers are more productive. So have more fun in the workplace!
The main thing I wanted to mention here is the idea that there are 3 Paths to Happiness and you need all three for life satisfaction.
The first is ‘Pleasant Life’. I think of this as the toys and places, the flash cars or houses, holidays relaxing on tropical beaches on white sand. It is basically the things that money can buy. This doesn’t mean that unless you have the money to buy a Ferrari and spend a month at some exclusive resort you will never be happy. It is more a case of enjoying some of these things within your price range. For some it might be treating themselves to an ice cream of a coffee, just something that you derive pleasure from.
I think we understand that for most of us money alone will not buy you happiness, having a garage full of Ferrari’s or being waited on endlessly at yet another expensive resort will not guarantee happiness.
The next element is Engaged Life. This is about spending at least some your life in the Flow. Being in the Flow is when you get into something that you enjoy doing and you become totally absorbed, time and external distractions are ignored. Some of athlete’s top performances are when they are in the zone or in the Flow. Work or hobbies can both provide the opportunity to spend time in the Flow. You cannot spend your whole life in this state. To achieve happiness you need to spend some time in it regularly.
The last element is Meaningul Life. This is fairly obvious, it is about feeling your life and what you are doing has some purpose. This doesn’t mean you need to be a Mother Theresa or Ghandi. It is about knowing what you want to achieve in your life, what legacy you want to leave. Your strengths and enjoyment might come from helping people and your job as a nurse would help you realise this and give your life meaning to you. You could have the same mission in life and build buildings to provide people with better spaces to live and work in.
As you can see it doesn’t have to be anything too complicated, it is more a matter of knowing you have a reason to get out of bed in the morning other than the fact you need to go to the toilet or work to get the money to pay the rent or mortgage.
So there it is Pleasant Life, Engaged Life and Meaningful Life. Do you have all those elements in your life? Work out what you need to do to have elements of all in your life and see what happens!
Tags: 3 Paths to Happiness, Engaged Life, Meaningful Life, Pleasant Life
