Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Accountability: Happiness Part 2

Hello!

I've been reading Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life, by Paul Dolan.
This book was recommended to me by a coworker and has started some interesting questions for me, in essence; what is happiness? How can happiness be measured? How can I improve my own happiness over time?

Last time I had been reading the overall causes of happiness and the dichotomy between pleasure and purpose within happiness. The second section of the book concerns the process of cultivating happiness.

As established in the first section of the book, happiness is defined internally and can be seen as a choice.

There are no cookie cutter solutions to happiness, if there were, everyone would be constantly happy, however there are simple principles by which we can help to ensure we are generally happier.

To build happiness you must be active in your approach and to an extent methodical. Planning for happiness and cultivating a mix of pleasure and purpose is key. I have put too much on the purpose side of happiness so much so that it is no longer truly effective.

Essentially I need to relax.

Happiness is a state which needs to be planned and built. Similar to Nudge theory and Ricard's work on perception, happiness may be natural but it can be cultivated through positive environments.

Thanks for reading!
AT




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