My 5 Pillars of Happiness

This week I feel super happy though I'm on reservist and I've just been playing spiderman on ps5. I think it's because my goal for the week was just to complete the spiderman gamer and then rest. So somehow goals and happiness is created, and unhappiness is the gap between what you have and what you want. so when you choose want you want you're choosing your happiness but also your unhappiness. We must therefore be very careful in choosing what we want. This week i chose to relax and play/complete a game, I did that and I've had a super happy and contented week

Me in the drafts, April 2024

I actually started this post about a year ago and never got around to writing it in full.

When I wrote it, I was on reservist, able to take a break from the busyness of everyday life and work. I was able to play the new Spiderman game without feeling guilt, knowing that I'm "allowed" to take a break.

And for someone with "itchy fingers" like me where I always have to be doing something productive, I was really happy.

Why was that the case?

I was quite burnt out from work and I was able to take a break from the hassle.

Fundamentally, I was able to do what I wanted to do. What I want to do changes with time, and there are always things that I want to do.

I think happiness is found in striking balance between things that you want to do for pleasure, and things that you want to do for improvement. The "harder" things, for lack of a better word.

What makes me happy?

My happy life consists of doing 5 overarching principles:

1. Exercise

2. Working towards a goal

3. Reflection

4. Relaxation alone

5. Enjoyment with loved ones

   
   

I try to construct my days/weeks around these principles, to fit time in for all aspects. More realistically, I try to plan out weeks or months for them.

Some might say that it's a bit overkill to plan it out like that, but it works for me and it makes me happy.

A happy life consists of happy years, happy weeks, happy days.

This was just a reflection on my end of what makes me happy, and it might be different for you.

Your relaxation activity might blend in with your working towards a goal.

For me, it can mean brainrotting for 30 minutes on TikTok, YouTube, or something else. And that works for me.

What works for you?

I don't know. You need to figure it out yourself

How to figure out what works for you?

You've got to explore. Try lots of things. Meet new people. Pursue things you've always wanted. Travel. Say yes to everything.

Do it enough times and you'll get a feel of what you like, and what you don't like.

Write down what you like, and what you don't like.

Once you feel ready, aggressively pursue the things you enjoy, and vehemently reject the things you don't enjoy.

Take time out of the week or the day to carve out time for things you enjoy.

You can't just go with the flow and let things happen to you, you've got to happen to things.

You don't want to mindlessly follow the "flow" and one day wake up being like "wtf am I doing? Wtf have I done with my life? Am I happy?"

As counter intuitive as it sounds, it was hard work to find out what makes me happy, but now I know where my happiness lies, so I can be laser focused and point towards it.

Happiness is as simple as just doing what you want, but you've got to figure out what you want in the first place.