In Seth Godin’s book, Tribes, he states Happiness = Initiative.
“Products and services…require initiative to produce. You can’t manage your way to initiative.
Creating products and services that are remarkable is fun. Doing work that’s fun is engaging. So not surprisingly, making things that are successful is a great way to spend your time.
There you go: initiative = happiness.”
Is this true? It depends – which is always the case – on what brings you happiness. But in this example, not focusing on products and services but rather activities that produce “remarkable” results (which can quite simply be the experience itself), creating and doing things that are fun and engaging can very much create a state of happiness.
This falls heavily into the Life Passions (and Dreams Goals) part of the Model of Functional Happiness. Life Passions are the areas and activities in our lives that we are passionate about, and greatly depend on the individual. Thus, do the things that you are passionate about, the things that bring you enjoyment purely from the pursuit, the process, the experience and you’ll find a level of happiness that is unparalleled to all the reward-based activities combined. This is heavily supported in Dan Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, in which he explores what truly motivates us (a highly recommended read).
So what’s this mean for us? While we can’t spend all of our days doing the things we are passionate about, we should be spending at least part of our days on activities that by the very experience inspire us and promote a state of happiness. What we do each and every day is a choice, one we have complete control over. We can spend a life doing unremarkable things that weigh on our spirits or we can choose to do the activities that add meaning and joy to our days.
Think about what inspires you, what drives you, what makes you want to quit reading this blog post right this minute and do something great. My advice: do it now. Because like Seth Godin said, it’s “a great way to spend your time” and your life.