The Essence of Eudaemonology
Talk delivered at the launch of New Escapologist Issue 13
This little talk was delivered at the launch event for the final issue of the New Escapologist magazine.
It was 9 years ago when Rob asked me if I wanted to be involved with a magazine he was setting up called the New Escapologist. At the time he asked, I was reading the Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer and was fascinated by his idea of eudaemonology, which is the science of happiness. And so I told Rob I'd love to be involved, but only on the condition that Eudemonology Editor was my official title.
Over the 13 issues I have reported back my findings from the study of subject like positive psychology, neurolinguistic programming, meditation, stoic philosophy, the quantified self, and much more. In everything I've written for the New Escapologist the central question, though, has always been how can we flourish as human beings.
As a result, I've also lived with the irony that no matter how much you learn about how to be happy you will still get depressed and suffer from what the Greeks called Akrasia, which basically means to act against your own interests through weakness of will.
It was at those times that I wondered whether the science of happiness isn't a contradiction in terms. For how can something so fleeting ever be systematised? Indeed, perhaps the more you chase happiness the further you push it away.
But then who knows how happy I'd have been if I'd never written about eudemonology. And even if we could somehow find this me from a parallel universe there is no way of saying which one us is happier. How do you measure such a thing?
Is happiness the presence of joy or is it the absence of suffering, as the buddhists would have it? All we really have is an inner feeling that tells you 'I am happy' or 'I am sad'. Which you then might connect into a story you tell yourself about being a happy or sad person. Although if you take this to the logical conclusion no one can be considered happy until they are on their death bed and reflecting on their life. But I wouldn't recommend that approach. What would I recommend?
In the latest issue of New Escapologist I've written a piece called Everything I've learned about happiness and productivity in the past 10 years. There are 116 items in the list. You'll be glad to know that I've whittled these down to 4 key insights that will hopefully make you all a bit happier.
1: Breathe
The body is amazing. As I stand here my heart is beating, my stomach acids are digesting a pizza, hormones are being released, adrenaline is pumping, I'm able to see you, and hear you and all of this is happening without any conscious control. The only unconscious, autonomic process that we can control is the breath. So take a minute now to take a deep breath through the nostrils, and feel the body relax and the mind become clearer.
2: Do one thing at a time
It is difficult in the age of the smartphone and email to avoid distractions, but multi-tasking diminishes everything we do. Every time you are distracted by a notification, they say you lose 10 IQ points.
To avoid multitasking, there are things like the pomodoro technique where make an agreement with yourself to work uninterruptedly for 25 minutes. You can stop reading the news, stop reading social media, stop checking your email every five minutes, and turn off all your notifications. If you want to do anything worthwhile is going to take concentration which is a depletable resource. I've worked out I can get about four hours of concentrated work per day, but if I am not interrupted can get a lot done.
3: Be a Flâneur
The opposite of the Flaneur is the tourist. The tourist is the person who gets an itinerary and ticks things off the list. They don't pay attention to the surroundings and don't find new opportunities.
The Flâneur is happy wandering around: everything is interesting to them. They allow things to happen and pursue novel paths. And I think this has a wider application when it comes to goals and objectives. It is all very easy to focus entirely on a goal and make life a misery in order to get there. But by focusing on the journey rather than the end point you often get somewhere a lot more interesting.
4: Surrender to the moment
It seems to me that most procrastination and bad behaviour occur when we want to avoid thinking about something in the present. You do all you can to distract yourself from the pain and think you will be happier, but really you are just deferring the pain. I recommend allow it to be. In terms of productivity do the smallest thing you can just to keep things moving forward. Remember that thoughts are just thoughts – they have no weight. So don't torture yourself with them. What's the worst that can happen. Everything will pass.
