I had an interesting conversation the other day with a Thinking Lab member who has hated his job off and on for a long time and wants to do something constructive about it. The key word here is “constructive.” People “hate” all kinds of things: the culture, how their families treat them, organizations they disapprove […]| Thinking Directions
In order to gain power over your own motivation, you need a rational morality — a self-consistent morality — that guides all of your choices and actions in a way that enables you to live, productively and happily, in long-term loving relationships over the course of your life. In other words, it is a morality […]| Thinking Directions
In preparation for a new series of classes on “The Work of Happiness” in the Thinking Lab, I have been doing some high-level thinking about how you raise your baseline happiness. As I wrote in How Do You Measure Happiness?, your “baseline happiness” is the overall percentage of your waking time in which you are […]| Thinking Directions
I derive my ideas on happiness from Ayn Rand, who wrote, among other things, “Morality…is a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life.” (AR, The Objectivist Ethics) “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not […]| Thinking Directions
Confidence is a crucial aspect of happiness. In this article, I will resume my series on the “Concept of Happiness” with a focus on confidence. As a reminder of the context, happiness comes from the achievement of your values. Not a value. Your values. You need to consistently achieve your values to be happy. This doesn’t […]| Thinking Directions
When you are committed to living by reason, contrary emotions can create all sorts of conundrums. For example, a Thinking Lab member recently reported some doubts about a decision he made to take a break and go for a walk. Based on our discussion, I would say that all of the evidence pointed toward his […]| Thinking Directions
This series of articles on happiness would not be possible without the philosophic foundation I got from studying Ayn Rand, with much help from other Objectivist philosophers. Ayn Rand gave me an integrated understanding of the world, how you know it, and what matters most. That integrated system of philosophy made it easier for me […]| Thinking Directions
This series of articles on happiness is based on a specific view of the relationship of the mind and the world, which Ayn Rand called “the primacy of existence.” This is the idea that “the universe exists independent of consciousness (of any consciousness), that things are what they are, that they possess a specific nature, […]| Thinking Directions
Self-understanding is critical to achieving enduring happiness. This assertion may seem simple and obvious. Happiness requires that you consistently achieve your values. To have such consistent success, you need to factor your own capabilities into your plans. But to do that, you need to know those capabilities. Q.E.D. You are the causal agent of your […]| Thinking Directions
In the most recent article in this series on happiness, I mentioned that the next topic would be embracing causality. To be happy, you need to understand the causal factors that contribute to your present emotional state so that you can enact the causes that will create your future happiness. First and foremost, this means […]| Thinking Directions
Our general topic has been happiness. We now get to the essential issue: can you make yourself happy? The answer is yes — but not by a direct process. You cannot guarantee existential success, nor can you predict your future emotions or your exact future circumstances. But you have indirect control over your own happiness. […]| Thinking Directions