Happiness

This layer's four quadrants follow the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, whose book Flow examines the psychology of happiness.

Many people believe that happiness comes from sensual pleasure, or gratifying our desires, or fame, or stuff. They are profoundly mistaken. Happiness comes from engaging the world in ways that embody these four qualities. Of course, these qualities are inter-related -- the challenge makes something engaging, and service helps to give meaning. But it's instructive to consider the four elements, and ask ourselves: what in my life allows me to experience all these qualities simultaneously? Which one do I most lack?

Engagement

When I am engaged in an activity, time seems to flow effortlessly. My focus is entirely on what I am doing; I lose self-consciousness. In fact, self-consciousness (in the usual sense of the term, meaning thinking about me and my desires and what I want and how the world has wronged me) is inversely proportional to engagement, which is a very different, and more satisfying, kind of awareness.

Challenge

We like a challenge. If what I am doing is too easy, I'm bored. If it's too hard, I'm overwhelmed. If I hit the "sweet spot" of challenge, however, I enjoy what I'm doing.

Meaning

This is the bane of the video-game generation. True happiness requires that the tasks of my life give me meaning. A video-game might be engaging and challenging, but ultimately it is pointless. Thus, the endless quest for the next level, or the next game that promises satisfaction. True satisfaction, however, needs meaning, which is available only in relationship to people in the real world, in activities that make a difference.

Service

I am mindful that, in advocating service, I'm committing the deepest heresy of the baby-boomer "me" generation. This is perhaps the gravest mistake of the twentieth century: the notion that selfishness, focus on me first, is the key to happiness. But spiritual and philosophical traditions from every culture through the eons of time are united in their wisdom on this: I am only truly happy when I am of service to others.

The most important two tasks of the new millenium are to re-engage in service, and to widen the scope of the "others" who we serve so that our circle of care includes the whole planet.