Pursuit of Happiness – Part 1

by Leave a Comment



The Pursuit of Happiness – Part 1

251A Victoria Street, Singapore 188035           www.yourmindstrategy.com

The Pursuit of Happiness
and the 10k Rule (PART 1)
BY DR SUNDARDAS D ANNAMALAY
I
would like to bring a new slant to the 10k rule. This is based on the processes of what we now know about neurological development of a child, the mechanisms
of expertise and the concept of flow in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“ as proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago.
This post has important implications for:
1) Parenting
2) Lifetime achievement
3) The real basis for the 10k rule

As humans we all want to maximise our pleasure and happiness and minimise our pain. My hypothesis is that the pursuit of happiness could lead to a lifetime of achievement and a plausible reason to invest 10k hours in pursuing a discipline.
The parental role in guiding this process  in their offspring is crucial and essential as in our latest Olympic champion Joseph Schooling. Aristotle more than 2300 years ago wrote that “More than anything else men and women seek happiness”.

Despite our progress and achievements, people end up feeling their lives are wasted. Instead of feeling more happiness, more people in first world countries spend their lives experiencing boredom and anxiety. People who learn to control their inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives.

JS Mill, wrote “Ask yourself if you are happy and you cease to be so” You find “happiness” by being involved in experiencing every detail of your life good or bad. You find happiness not by trying to look for it directly.

Viktor Frankl, in his seminal book “Man’s search for meaning”, wrote. “Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success like happiness cannot be pursued, it must ensue…as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater then oneself”.

Optimal experience occurs at times when instead of being buffeted by anonymous forces you feel in control of your actions. You are master of your fate. That is when you feel exhilarated and experience a deep sense of enjoyment. It becomes a marker for what life should be like.

Consider the sailor when he is racing his little boat against the tide and he feels the thrill of the wind against his face and the exhilaration of his skill in controlling his destiny. Consider the enjoyment of a painter when he looks at what new art forms he has wrought on his canvas.

Optimal experience is not just reserved for pleasant things. It also occurs in concentration camps after surviving near death experiences At the epiphany of a beautiful sunset after you thought you were going to die but didn’t.

You get pleasure from passive, receptive relaxing times. However it is when you have pushed your body and mind in a voluntary effort to accomplish something worthwhile and difficult that you experience optimal experience. You can enhance your happiness through control over your life.

Everything in your life is basically information. If you control this information, you decide what your live will be like. Optimal state occurs when there is order in consciousness. When psychic energy is invested in realistic goals and skills match opportunities for action.

Flow is when consciousness is ordered and you go after whatever you want, to pursue it for its own sake. How people respond to stress determines whether they profit from misfortune or are miserable. Those who use that stressor to grow and learn will look back at that period in retrospect and enjoy those moments of triumph. Those who felt overwhelmed will experience the quality of their lives and their abilities shrink after the event.

To deal with obstacles, culture develops protective devices like religion, philosophies, arts and comforts. This has been your shield from chaos. However this shield is increasingly wearing thin in the face of rapidly changing social contexts. It is getting harder and harder for people to believe in a benign deity that orders the universe for your convenience.

Trying to achieve happiness without any sort of faith,  results in another extreme.  This is to maximise biologically programmed pleasures or those deemed attractive by society you live in. But your quality of life cannot be improved this way. Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment by moment experience in everything you do results in optimal experience according to the research by Professor Mihaly. Only as you successfully and purposefully overcome obstacles to fulfilment do you approach the basis for optimal experience.

MIND STRATEGICS LEARNING CONSULTANCY PTE LTD 2016  © DR SUNDARDAS D ANNAMALAY



We see things DIFFERENTLY, but how do we understand one another?

by Leave a Comment

different-perspective

Perspective – it is the very element that makes us see things differently. Often  our perspective is based on our unconscious beliefs. We view them as per the past that we have experienced. It is one of the reasons why we have these beliefs. However, a situation can be interpreted by different people since we all have different perspectives.

When there is a bank robbery, the police gather all the victims first and take all their statements. Then they ask questions about  how they saw the event. They may ask what time the heist happened? How many robbers were there? What were the characteristics of the robbers? Were they able to recognize the voices? Did they hurt anyone? The victims will answer these questions based on their perspective and how the events affected them.

“There are no facts, only interpretations!” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Each situation, event and even conversation can mean something different to all who were affected by the bank robbery. They need every statement to see the whole story which is what is commonly known as the “bird’s eye view”.

Bird’s eye view is the most commonly known term that describes a person’s point of view when taking a step back and seeing the whole picture. It means someone can see a situation in a different perspective. With it a person can assess and visualize all the possibilities the could have been happened. He or she can also understand the different ways that a person can think and see various perspectives in all the versions of the event.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as WE are.” – Anais Nin

Our brain is trying to make sense of the world based on our experiences. A person who was bullied when he was a child will most likely have a perspective that everyone will hurt him and make fun of him or that no one would love him. They will also see things like: moving to a different house as dangerous or going out with their family or friends as threatening, since they think that there might be someone who will bully them again or hurt them especially if they are in a new environment. However, a good deed from someone or a simple greeting might be interpreted incorrectly by the person who was bullied before. Due to the reason that he had previous experiences about being tricked. He will immediately activate his defense mechanism and try to act differently and not the way the other person expected. It is how our minds crafted the situation based on our experiences and that is how powerful our minds are.

“One person’s craziness is another person’s reality” – Tim Burton

Deep in our brains is what we call the “Wise Mind” that gives us the interpretation from a different perspective. It really takes time, patience and self discipline to master this and be consistent about it. Some people already have this activated in their brains but they’re not aware about it. If you want to know how to see things differently and know every aspect that needs to be reconsidered, then don’t hesitate to JOIN US TODAY!

GO for the GOLD! Focus is the KEY

by Leave a Comment

perfect-mindset

There are a lot of things that you have to understand in your business, like the process of building your business. In addition, you also have to make sure that you are meeting your clients’ expectations but still keeping track of records to see if your business is growing or failing. These are just a few items that you need to do if you’re trying to build your business. Reaching your goals may sometimes mean taking risks, and might lead you astray with all dead-end options.

You might be going to a lot of training and doing a lot of self-help. However, if there is too much stuff going on you may experience being overwhelmed. These might affect your peak moments in business where you may no longer have new ideas to innovate. You will start to focus on problems and notice unimportant details, in turn, you end up in the same place as where you have started.

Your mind is like a child’s room. It has a lot of things where you have to make sure to tidy up everything. You don’t know where to start but just FOCUS on one thing first and make your way from there!

There may be a lot of things that you have to handle. But by focusing on just one thing and carrying on from there, you’ll see eventually that things are not as messy as it may have seemed. The key to achieving your goals is just to FOCUS on what’s important. Put your mind at ease by finishing the top priority item on your to do list before moving on to the next one. You will then, be able to accomplish everything in time. You don’t have to finish them too quickly, instead, you have to complete them based on your schedule.

Anything is possible if you put your mind to it!

Yes, that is absolutely true! Anything is possible, if you put your mind to it! Focus and take control of your business. Don’t let the opportunity slip by. Be your own boss and learn how to direct your mind and your business to the right direction by CLICKING HERE!