Zen and the art of alcoholic liquid experimentation
Organizations, especially business and government organizations, like to have mission statements. The place where I work at, I've seen three mission statements in three years. On hindsight, we must be on a meta-mission to find a mission. But that's another story all together.
In February 2007, I went home for vacation during the Chinese New Year period. One day I visited a bookstore. I couldn't remember what bookstore it was. I think it was in a mall. I was looking for books that I could bring back to the country where I was working. As I walked towards the Self-Help section, I was surprised by the number of shelves in that section. Another two years ago the Self-Help section in a typical bookstore in Singapore, as far as I remembered, might be two shelves big. There were four or five. About 1/2 of a side of a shelf was for books on happiness - about a hundred titles. That was a lot of books on one single seemingly simple topic!
Seemed to me that more people were relying on self-help books than before, which meant
1) people were beginning to trust these books more than before,
2) people had needs for these books more than before, or
3) more Singaporeans were reading books than before.
It was probably a mix of these, but I was particularly interested in (2). Given that 2007 was quite a depressing year for me, it somewhat made me felt better to know that I was the not the only who needed help to become happier. On a kinder and more intellectual note: I thought that the increase in demand and supply on self-help on happiness implied certain social trend and issues.
I bought four books on happiness to date, and was given one as a gift. I bought two as gifts for a friend a relative too - giving brings happiness you know. I finished two of them. Not having read all of them actually makes feel me guilty and a little unhappy. Hmm...
A common message that I received from the two books that I read is:
"the mission of life is to be as happy as one can be".
And happiness, as defined by one of the books, is:
"a function of instant enjoyment and lifetime meaningfulness".
At least that is how I interpret the message.
This definition is very cool and very important. It implies that
1) happiness depends on what we choose to do and how we choose to live, and
2) doing exactly the same things and living the same lives will not bring happiness to all, because what each of us enjoy and find meaningful are different.
So when it comes to what we do, happiness depends on how much we enjoy the task that we do and how meaningful we find the activity is to our values. But happiness can also be defined as
"a function of what we do and how we think".
Independently of what we do, what we think can make us more happy or less happy. Like the saying goes, attitude is everything. (Research also shows that smiling makes us happier. The muscular effort of pulling our facial muscles to mimic a genuine smile or laughter somehow produces a delightful neurological feedback.) We cannot always choose what we do, but we can always choose what and how we think. (As I was revising the grammar in this paragraph after I had already published it, I suddenly got this idea that I should not be upset that I do not know what I should do as a career; I should be excited that I'm going to be on a journey to find out!)
To keep the story short so that I can go to bed, the moral of the story is:
"I enjoy drinking beer, and I find a meaning in brewing great tasting beer for mankind. I am considering finding a job in a beer brewery. I think this will make me happy, and I don't give a sh*t to what you think".
In February 2007, I went home for vacation during the Chinese New Year period. One day I visited a bookstore. I couldn't remember what bookstore it was. I think it was in a mall. I was looking for books that I could bring back to the country where I was working. As I walked towards the Self-Help section, I was surprised by the number of shelves in that section. Another two years ago the Self-Help section in a typical bookstore in Singapore, as far as I remembered, might be two shelves big. There were four or five. About 1/2 of a side of a shelf was for books on happiness - about a hundred titles. That was a lot of books on one single seemingly simple topic!
Seemed to me that more people were relying on self-help books than before, which meant
1) people were beginning to trust these books more than before,
2) people had needs for these books more than before, or
3) more Singaporeans were reading books than before.
It was probably a mix of these, but I was particularly interested in (2). Given that 2007 was quite a depressing year for me, it somewhat made me felt better to know that I was the not the only who needed help to become happier. On a kinder and more intellectual note: I thought that the increase in demand and supply on self-help on happiness implied certain social trend and issues.
I bought four books on happiness to date, and was given one as a gift. I bought two as gifts for a friend a relative too - giving brings happiness you know. I finished two of them. Not having read all of them actually makes feel me guilty and a little unhappy. Hmm...
A common message that I received from the two books that I read is:
"the mission of life is to be as happy as one can be".
And happiness, as defined by one of the books, is:
"a function of instant enjoyment and lifetime meaningfulness".
At least that is how I interpret the message.
This definition is very cool and very important. It implies that
1) happiness depends on what we choose to do and how we choose to live, and
2) doing exactly the same things and living the same lives will not bring happiness to all, because what each of us enjoy and find meaningful are different.
So when it comes to what we do, happiness depends on how much we enjoy the task that we do and how meaningful we find the activity is to our values. But happiness can also be defined as
"a function of what we do and how we think".
Independently of what we do, what we think can make us more happy or less happy. Like the saying goes, attitude is everything. (Research also shows that smiling makes us happier. The muscular effort of pulling our facial muscles to mimic a genuine smile or laughter somehow produces a delightful neurological feedback.) We cannot always choose what we do, but we can always choose what and how we think. (As I was revising the grammar in this paragraph after I had already published it, I suddenly got this idea that I should not be upset that I do not know what I should do as a career; I should be excited that I'm going to be on a journey to find out!)
To keep the story short so that I can go to bed, the moral of the story is:
"I enjoy drinking beer, and I find a meaning in brewing great tasting beer for mankind. I am considering finding a job in a beer brewery. I think this will make me happy, and I don't give a sh*t to what you think".
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