http://www.linkedin.com Last week you learned that your path to purposefulness will require you to murder.
This week you will give up trying to be happy.
A couple weeks back, Motivate (Beta) Fellow Kyle Hartman sent me an article by Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Entitled "Does Trying to Be Happy Make Us Unhappy?", this excellent article exposes 4 mistakes folks make when chasing happiness. They are:
You should read it. The story that opens this article and the discussion of these 4 mistakes are excellent.
The Article is Only a Bonus
If you only read the article, then you'll get some value from reading this post. But, the real value comes from taking action on what the article means for your life.
Mistake number 1 was "trying to figure out if you are happy". This seems like a rebuke to you for being a part of a community that has a core mission to help you to discover your purpose and then live that purpose everyday (assuming that living purposefully will provide you a form of happiness). It also seems like a rebuke to me for writing this.
After all, a couple weeks ago I challenged you to ask the simple questions that confront you as a member of MightyPurpose, that are offered to you by others in the world, and even those you find on your own. But, isn't this just another way of trying to figure out if you are happy?
Probably. I know of no other way for you to wake yourself up. But being awake is meaningless if you don't do something while you are awake.
Let me put this another way. Ask the simple questions, whether in the form of the tests I have offered you or in a different form, and get your current best answers. Think of these answers are like scientific hypotheses. For them to be useful to you, you must take the time to test them in the real world. You must take action based on those answers and see what happens. Not only take action, but commit all the way when you take action.
Consider your career as an example. If you want your career to contribute to you living a purposeful life, then you cannot each month make it a point of deciding whether or not your will keep your current job. Instead, think of your job as a 2 to 4 year project and stick with it until the project is done or you're fired. Only when the project is complete (i.e. you have made the super challenging X happen), then you decide whether or not whether to stay or whether to go. If you stay, it's a new 2 to 4 year project with a new super challenging X.
But you should still engage your simple questions often. But don't use them to evaluate whether to stay or go, but instead use them to help you transform your current job into something that serves you and your purpose better.
Of course, this idea doesn't just to apply to your career. It applies to all of the big things that make up your life, including your relationships (hopefully some of these are lifetime projects instead of just 2 year ones), your spirituality (if this is part of your life), and your personal growth (another lifetime project).
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
P.S. - In the last 2 weeks I've told you to murder and to not try to be happy. What will I say next, to manage your life like a creative project? Yes.
- Trying to figure out if you are happy;
- Giving too much weight to the circumstances of your life;
- Playing the game of life alone; and,
- Valuing intensity of happy feelings over frequency of happy feelings.
You should read it. The story that opens this article and the discussion of these 4 mistakes are excellent.
The Article is Only a Bonus
If you only read the article, then you'll get some value from reading this post. But, the real value comes from taking action on what the article means for your life.
Mistake number 1 was "trying to figure out if you are happy". This seems like a rebuke to you for being a part of a community that has a core mission to help you to discover your purpose and then live that purpose everyday (assuming that living purposefully will provide you a form of happiness). It also seems like a rebuke to me for writing this.
After all, a couple weeks ago I challenged you to ask the simple questions that confront you as a member of MightyPurpose, that are offered to you by others in the world, and even those you find on your own. But, isn't this just another way of trying to figure out if you are happy?
Probably. I know of no other way for you to wake yourself up. But being awake is meaningless if you don't do something while you are awake.
Let me put this another way. Ask the simple questions, whether in the form of the tests I have offered you or in a different form, and get your current best answers. Think of these answers are like scientific hypotheses. For them to be useful to you, you must take the time to test them in the real world. You must take action based on those answers and see what happens. Not only take action, but commit all the way when you take action.
Consider your career as an example. If you want your career to contribute to you living a purposeful life, then you cannot each month make it a point of deciding whether or not your will keep your current job. Instead, think of your job as a 2 to 4 year project and stick with it until the project is done or you're fired. Only when the project is complete (i.e. you have made the super challenging X happen), then you decide whether or not whether to stay or whether to go. If you stay, it's a new 2 to 4 year project with a new super challenging X.
But you should still engage your simple questions often. But don't use them to evaluate whether to stay or go, but instead use them to help you transform your current job into something that serves you and your purpose better.
Of course, this idea doesn't just to apply to your career. It applies to all of the big things that make up your life, including your relationships (hopefully some of these are lifetime projects instead of just 2 year ones), your spirituality (if this is part of your life), and your personal growth (another lifetime project).
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
P.S. - In the last 2 weeks I've told you to murder and to not try to be happy. What will I say next, to manage your life like a creative project? Yes.
[Image: LinkedIn]