The most popular class at Harvard is a course in Happiness taught by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D. His curriculum and his book, Happier, are based on the premise that both meaning and pleasure are required for us humans to be happy. Neither quality, in itself, is enough for lasting well-being.
Consider which of these categories best describes how you spend your time:
Are you a ‘rat racer’ driving yourself toward external rewards and future pleasures, at the expense of current happiness?
Are you a ‘hedonist’ seeking current pleasures, with little regard for your larger purpose or future happiness?
Are you a ‘nihilist,’ stuck in the past, in learned helplessness, hopelessness, and despair, having given up on finding happiness?
Or are you one of the ‘happy’ ones, engaging in activities and practices that 1) are meaningful and pleasurable in the moment, and 2) pay off for both your present and future selves?
Ben-Shahar, a recovering rat racer like me, challenges his readers to explore where they derive meaning and pleasure in both their work and personal lives and then to do more of that.
At his recommendation I generated lists of activities that give me pleasure and meaning generally, then zeroed in on ways I might reap more of those rewards from my work in graphic design.
PLEASURE
Have fun
Connect with clients in a collaborative process
Enjoy creative breakthroughs and flashes of inspiration
Learn new things, have ‘aha!’ moments
Appreciate beauty in art and in nature
Get lost in the focus and flow of the creative process
Find just the right words to express an idea
MEANING
Connect with clients in a collaborative process
Capture the essence of an organization and its offer
Connect my clients with their clients (or audience)
Provide communication solutions (in images and/or words)
Learn and build skills continuously
Collect ideas and images for future inspiration
Develop design projects for my own self-expression
Create one or more products for passive income potential
NEW JOB DESCRIPTION (based on the above lists)
Create for the fun of it, sharing what I love and what inspires me, with the world
Connect in meaningful ways with clients, their organizations, their offerings, and their audiences
Nurture partnerships, getting to know clients, sharing marketing possibilities with them, supporting their businesses and referring to them when I can
Develop personal projects that take my skills in inspired directions and generate passive income opportunities
Welcome outside challenges that stretch my abilities
Stay in awe of the entrepreneurial spirit
The process has given me ‘new eyes’ with which to view my world and has paved the way for more positive experiences. As I mentally measure the pleasure and meaning in my daily activities, my choices become more deliberate, more intentional. I get that I can construct my life with these building blocks of happiness at work and at play. And so can you!
Since everything we want, from conditions to relationships to material manifestations, is about being happier, why not cut to the chase and go for ‘the ultimate currency’ of happiness itself? The happiness literature points to three factors that determine our happiness: our genetic predisposition, our life circumstances, and our activities and practices. Since we have no control over our genetics, and very limited control over external circumstances, our best shot at happiness may lie in how we choose to spend our time. Happiness may indeed be found in the journey, not the destination.
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