Happiness

Many times, when trying to understand human nature, it helps to look at children. As the saying goes, “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.” Adults have the same basic psychology as children, only children are simpler. This helps us see past our sophistication to the basic principles that govern our lives.

When are children happy? Children are happy when they are playing and having fun, right? Yet, the saying goes, “busy children are happy children.” At first, this seems strange. Children like to play. Why would children be happy when they are busy? But, we see that children left to do whatever they want get bored, spoiled, and miserable. Children need have structure and be productive. Then, they are happy. So, on the one hand, children “hate” structure and resist productivity; they almost need to be forced into it. And, on the other hand, children enjoy and need the structure and productivity forced on them by adults.

So we see that there are two types of happiness: a quick instant “fun happiness”, and a longer lasting hard-earned “productive happiness”. The first comes from enjoying an activity. We call this play. The second comes from enjoying hard-earned results. We call this work.

“Fun happiness” ends as soon as the game is over. No play, no fun. “Productive happiness” lasts forever as a sense of accomplishment. Usually, a person gives up some instant gratification as an investment for the deeper, longer lasting happiness that comes from productivity.

However, these two types of happiness need not conflict. We can bring them together. We do this when we love our job. That means we do something productive, meaningful and valuable to society, but also something we happen to love doing. This has another benefit; we are most productive when we enjoy what we’re doing.

Another trick for bringing these types of happiness together is the love of a challenge. A challenge is enjoying something difficult, something that is externally hard work and not fun. Yet, when it is viewed as a challenge, the difficulty itself becomes the best part. This is the idea behind the joy of playing a game. The goal may not be anything exciting (e.g. to have a football in the end-zone), but the challenge (what it took to get there) makes it fun.

Of course, the best challenge is one that is also accomplishes something productive. So by setting a noble goal, one that uses one’s individual talents and nature, to be most productive, and then by enjoying the challenge of the process, one can be doubly happy.

In short: Live life like it’s a game, play the game like it’s your life.

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