Comments on: Measuring Happiness

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:12:11 +0000

Lots of interesting thoughts!
suburbanlife -
It’s probably just my personality type but I tend to feel really lost without a goal of some sort. I’m not much for striving to make a zillion dollars so I am trying to substitute with something more in line with my values and passions but I’m not very good at just reveling in the journey. I do agree that contentment comes from balancing personal and social purposes although I often struggle to define each of them!
Emily -
I’ll keep you posted!
Kymberly -
Part of our discussion was rooted in a conversation I had with a life coach about being frustrated with my lack of purpose in life. I told her I felt like I wasn’t making any progress in life, that I was just kinda wandering. She said what I needed to do was establish some metrics so that I could tell if I were progressing or not. She said it could be anything as long as it’s measurable. Lots of people use money or status but that didn’t feel very useful to me. Will suggested I start with measuring happiness since he thinks it’s a reasonable goal and I think that one of the big indicators of whether or not I’m on the right path is how happy I am.
I feel that happiness is not something to be searched for and found but I do believe it’s something a person can work towards in terms of noticing what’s working in life and what’s not working and adjusting accordingly. To me the idea of just being happy or unhappy as life leads me seems a bit too passive.
Cinco -
Ooh, nice link! Sounds like she’s already doing some of the things I’m thinking about…

By: cinco

cinco — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:44:32 +0000

I’ve seen lots of blogs about happiness–the one that came to mind first was http://www.happinessproject.typepad.com/, but there are lots more where that came from. It’s a very interesting topic and I’d like to read your thoughts on it!

By: Kymberly

Kymberly — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:38:22 +0000

Why does happiness need to be measured? You can’t find happiness - just be happy (or not).

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:10:29 +0000

Interesting topic! I would totally buy your book

By: suburbanlife

suburbanlife — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:34:09 +0000

You could consider all of your life as an experiment in attempting to find meaning and marrying personal to social purposes. True contentment comes from a balance in those two means. Why not simply revel in the journey and let the destination be a distant goal toward which you aim the trajectory of your experiences. I have never bought into the self-help, journey to discovery types of publications, because usually the aim is to capitalize on the memes operating within the culture in order to make money and stuff the personal coffers. That is why I disdain the breezy, ad-speak aspects of No Impact Man’s writing in his blogs. In twenty years or so , writers such as these will go down as money-making attemps, while the writings of one, such as Edward Abbey will retain a truthful and honest flavour. Following one’s passions without a weather eye to being recompensed in one’s ideas is far more laudable. G