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Happiness, says author Paul Dolan, is a mix of purpose and pleasure. \u00a0During a lecture at London\u2019s Conway Hall, he argued that one of the problems with studies of happiness is that people tend to offer evaluations of how happy they think they were over a period of time, rather than direct in-the-moment ratings of their experience. \u00a0We get caught up in the stories we tell about ourselves (such as \u2018I like being a parent\u2019 or \u2018I have a great career as a lawyer\u2019) at the expense of simply noting our moment-to-moment felt experiences.<\/p>\n
Happiness measures as presented by researchers are based on these evaluations, dependent on people making sophisticated and comparative judgements.<\/p>\n
If we want to focus on direct experience, I\u2019d suggest we look towards improvisational practices. \u00a0They are designed to generate a range of moments that produce pleasure and sometimes – mildly – pain. \u00a0Improvisation gives us episodes of immediate feeling. \u00a0It opens a way into looking at the meaning of moments rather than the meaning of life. \u00a0We can report on how the birthday party went, rather than the bigger story we tell about being a father.<\/p>\n
There is plenty of research about the associations between happiness and parenting, by the way. \u00a0Having children tends to increase one’s sense of purpose, rather than offering immediate pleasure.<\/p>\n
Dolan says we can view much of what we do as looking for a more efficient production process to convert our inputs into outputs of happiness. \u00a0This production process depends on how much of our scarce resource of attention we pay to things. \u00a0Allocation of attention is a primary skill of improvisation. \u00a0And we have choices of where to put our attention. \u00a0We can, for example, attend more closely to those things that work well for us, to the conditions that help us succeed. It makes tremendous strategic sense to consciously set up favourable conditions and contexts for our better habits.<\/p>\n
You can find more on Paul Dolan here:\u00a0http:\/\/happinessbydesign.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Paul<\/p>\n