Seven steps to passable levels of personal contentment in the happiness industrial complex
“We have this really charming and totally untrue illusion in society that happiness comes from success,” says Dr Michael Plant. I was seeking an academic counterpoint to the less regulated world of coaches I’d been enmeshed in, and Dr Plant is a post-doctoral Research Fellow and the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.
Dr Plant’s aim is to maximise world happiness, “happiness” being a term he defines thusly: “Experiencing pleasurable conscious states – in other words, feeling good. Psychologists often use the word ‘valence’ to refer to how overall good or bad an experience feels, which is contrasted with 'arousal', how excited you are. So happiness is anything with positive valence.
Plant also prays caution against the “rise ‘n’ grind, always-be-hustling” mentality that creeps, inexorably, across social media feeds – often in those inane infographics that advise you to read six self-help books a week, work four jobs and a “side hustle”, and wake up an hour before you go to bed. He disagrees with “the basic idea that you need to get your head down, work hard and make yourself unhappy now so you can be successful later.
Nonagenarian style icon Iris Apfel pithily advised me to lower my expectations [4]. Real-life Beatle Ringo Starr responded with exactly the message you’d expect [5]. Both Hollywood legend Betty White [6] and motivational speaker-slash-former champion wrestler Diamond Dallas Page [7] exhorted me focus on the positive . So too did tech giant Sheryl Sandberg, in a response I found unexpectedly moving [8]. Nation’s sweetheart Joe Wicks recommended I ingest ayahuasca [9].
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