On Happiness II & The Audacity of Hope

I wrote about Happiness and Goals the other day.

I found an interesting experiment someone is conducting. They are quantifying the details of many aspects of their life to see what the data shows...

http://www.quantifiedself.com/

After I wrote about Happiness, I had a thought... What if I am thinking about Happiness incorrectly?

Certainly we are given the ability to pursue happiness, but implicitly, that DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPY ALL THE TIME.

Even with that thought, I still feel somewhat contradictory thoughts about obtaining happiness. Though we cannot obtain it indefinitely, unless we have a slow stream of Miller Genuine Draft being injected into our bloodstream, we can however increase the possibility that we will be happy over time with intentional effort.

So maybe, we can obtain it, MOST of the time, not ALL the time.

ANOTHER THEORY: It is much easier to do things or create a lifestyle that outputs only an average attainment of elevated happiness.

Repeated, different phrasing, it's a helluva lot easier to coast and experience a modicum of happiness, and not be intentional in trying to obtain a much more fulfilling level of happiness.

I surmise that Happiness/Sadness is like a sliding scale which can be moved slightly up or down due to external factors we can control.

I think the experiment at the http://www.quantifiedself.com will prove the theory.

For example, just as running has helped me to feel happy, http://www.quantifiedself.com has experienced exactly the same outcome. They noticed that on the days that they exercised, they were happier.

Thus, the inclusion of exercise/running will increase the possibility our mood will be happier, than say if we were to sit around and watch TV, specifically a horrible show like The Fringe.

So the likelihood of Happiness, conversely the likelihood of Sadness, can be directly affected by intentional action.

Though, we must keep with us the knowledge that, it is the RANGE that we can affect most effectively, but it will not always be as easy to precisely control the sway of mood.

I think overall, the incredibly simple message I allowed myself to accept, is that I do not have to be happy or successful all the time. It is not possible. So often, I am too black or white, all or nothing, in my judgment of circumstances, I would fair better if I altered that mind set.

Audacity of Hope

I obtained a copy of The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama recently.
I recommend it.
Obama speaks of a short meeting with George W. Bush.
After having listened to Obama, it has humanized both he and Bush.

It is too easy to ridicule public officials. Sure we should question them, but I believe the goodness in people, and those who have escalated themselves to the challenge of being in a public role in government are much more intelligent in dealings with government than I could ever be, just as I am much more adept at art than they could ever be.

Bush probably did the best he could, and must be quite resilient to be able to shrug such things as this:



Personally, I would have made fun of the shoe thrower, cause he missed twice.

"You throw like a girl... a girl who doesn't necessarily play softball or is otherwise athletically inclined."