Making the Essential Enjoyable & Easy
Making Monday
I've heard it said that how we feel on Mondays is one of the clearest indicators of life satisfaction. Here is a quick thought on how to make Monday—and every day—work better...
Legit Good Feelings
Philosophers and spiritual leaders from time immemorial have pointed out that life is difficult…
Reality serves us indigestible sandwiches from time to time.
And when things are ostensibly going well, we've still got the chaos of our minds and hearts roiling around.
So we seek relief, which is perfectly reasonable. A problem arises, however, with our relief solutions.
Our cultural defaults—pushed at us relentlessly—favor immediate state change through denial, distraction, anesthesia, acquisition, and thrill seeking.
These solve the problem for the moment, but become the problem themselves longer term, entangling us in addiction and futility.
As an alternative, I'm interested in what I call Legit Good Feeling activities.
These are actions that lead to happiness, fulfillment, and pleasure but do not cast much of a shadow, if at all.
Taking this concept further, I suspect that if you tell me how much time you spend doing Legit Good Feeling activities, I can tell you approximately how happy and satisfied you are with your life.
Everyone's LGF list is a bit different, and in my coaching practice I help people clarify theirs. (Note: we typically find answers looking in the past, rather than speculating about the future.)
But there are some actions I think of as universals, based upon my own experience and research in this area. These are at least worth considering for inclusion on your list:
1. Moving the body.
2. Creating, fixing, or finishing things.
3. Worthy endeavor or quest.
4. Learning, curiosity, discovery.
5. Time and attention for those we love.
6. Acts of generosity.
7. Acts of integrity.
8. Appreciation and gratitude.
9. Connection with something greater.
I believe these actions are inherently fulfilling and satisfying because they align with and express who and what we are at our core.
They resonate with our deepest identities, rather than reflecting the surface of what popular culture tells us we should be and want.
We can start today to find a few more minutes for such actions, then consider how we might expand further, over time displacing the troublesome alternatives.
This Legit Good Feeling list provides the building blocks of meaning, satisfaction, and fulfillment. It is possible to construct a whole life from them.
Together, let's end the fight to change…
Delmar
