From Volume 17, Issue 7: My readers have often been exposed to my philosophy concerning the difference between satisfaction (a metric usually involved in comparing my situation with others) and happiness (a choice).
From Volume 15, Issue 3:Knower/Judger vs Learner/Researcher: Part 2
Last month I used the terms “role” and “soul” to help clarify the difference between being in my K/J state and my L/R state. My “role” is the life script I’m executing, with all its goals and achievements that I can feel good or bad about hitting or not hitting. My “soul” are the untethered “think-out-of-the-box” parts of me that live in my thoughts and dreams… and sometimes run afoul of my role(s).
From Volume 14, Issue 7:What does it mean to be happy?
From Volume 11, Issue 2:We’ve been down this discussion road before. The older I get the clearer I get when distinguishing between satisfaction and happiness.
Perhaps it’s just my definitions that help me feel clearer about the distinction, and that helps me make decisions day-to-day, minute-to-minute on what’s important—a version of interactive triage.
For those who’ve followed this line of thought in the past, you will recognize that I perceive satisfaction as the degree to which I’ve accomplished some goal I set out to accomplish.
From Volume 9, Issue 1:The cultural Knower/Judger rule, at least here in the Western world, is that we continually strive to close the gap between what we have or are, and what we want or want to be. The desire to close this gap is a motivator. It’s what will help you make a higher salary or annual income this year, hit your sales goals, and get the car, house, or clothes you want. But let’s face it. The driving force of the American Dream is a certain level of dissatisfaction and, quite naturally, unhappiness—until you get what you want. My question is this: do dissatisfaction and unhappiness have to go together?
From Volume 9, Issue 1:We all know we should be altruistic, and many of us are. But do we truly understand why? When I’m altruistic, it’s good for others. I’m helping someone in some way, giving my own money, time, or energy to another when I could be using it for myself. It’s a nice thing to do, but what do I get out of it? Well, it turns out that I’m the winner when it comes to being altruistic because there are a whole lot of benefits.
From Volume 8, Issue 11:Every once in a while my computer locks up. In Mac land they call it the “pinwheel of death.” Microsoft people call it the “blue screen of death.” Anyway…it’s death. Sometimes the router for my in-home Wi-Fi just gets testy and stops communicating with my devices. I’ve had times when the “smart” stuff in my car has stopped working. How do I recover from these little tragedies? They all have reset buttons! Do a restart and all is well.
But what about my reset button? You know, the one that eliminates what’s causing me stress right now and gives me a new outlook on a situation and new energy to move forward? The way I see it, there are three types of reset buttons we can press when life is challenging us—if we remember to press them.
From Volume 8, Issue 11:Like a mysterious subatomic particle or large universal component, both of which are known to exist by inference of proven data, I think I’ve identified a level above Eckhart Tolle’s three responses. We know we can choose to accept what happens, enjoy it passively, or even engage in the occurrence enthusiastically. But there is evidence that a level greater than “engaging enthusiastically” exists—and I think we’ve all experienced it.
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