Positive Psychology has boiled people's happiness down to three major components: The Sensory, the Engaged, and the Meaningful life.BRUTE wrote:... brute did abso-fucking-lutely nothing for almost 2 years. in the beginning it was great fun, and he spent lots of time with (new) friends, learned languages, lost weight, worked out, blablablablabla.
but after about 1 year of no external constraints, brute realized that being completely free didn't allow him to be "himself". there was no "himself"...
Sensory: Eating, sex, hiking, good company, concerts, exhibitions etc. These things you get better at by training your ability to appreciate them ie Mindfulness. The primary pitfall of this is Hedonic Adaptation, naturally.
Engaged: Flow, put shortly. Something that really engages you and challenges you at the same time. Something you get good at by repeated practice and by seeking out challenges that are intellectually challenging to you and also fit within your framework of interests.
The Meaningful: Doing something for others while experiencing and appreciating the effect it has. Help someone move ahead in life, do something that reaches beyond you and help your community, for any given of definition of community.
You can probably think of a prototype human who engages solely in one of these disciplines. Then try to imagine what kind of person does all of it at the same time.
Have you made these three primary modes a part of your web of goals?
Did you regularly appreciate your non-need to go to work during your time off work, or did you immediately take the free time for granted and goofed off with no sense of appreciation for the accomplishment?