There is an aspect of Self Thought that has happiness causing potential. That is positive Self Thoughts. There are a number of ways of generating these. The first is the fostering of, or developing, a sense of satisfaction.

Satisfaction

I contend that the types of Self Thoughts that are most likely to have happiness causing potential are those that provide a sense of satisfaction. A sense of satisfaction can be achieved through having:

a sense of purpose;
a sense of competence; and/or
a sense of achievement.

In this context the word "sense" is used to mean a thought process or a set of thoughts that give rise to an emotional response, rather than the physical senses used in Awareness processes.

You can have a sense of purpose while planning and carrying out an action. A sense of competence can be obtained while carrying out an action in an effective manner and a sense of achievement can be obtained after an action is successfully completed. This covers all phases of carrying out an action.

There are a number of possible ways of gaining purpose, competence and/or achievement in life.

Goals

The first of these are having goals. Planning for and then working towards a goal can provide a sense of purpose. While working to achieve the goal a sense of competence can be achieved, provided the work is being performed skillfully. When the goal is reached there is a sense of satisfaction through the achievement of the goal. This applies regardless of what the goal is or how important the goal actually is, so long as the goal is thought to be important or desirable by the person.

An example of this would be having a goal to acquire a material item, say to buy a car. While striving for the car, by working hard and saving money there is a sense of purpose. The person can answer the question "why am I working hard?" - to buy a car. When the money is saved and the car is purchased there is a sense of achievement. If whatever the person was doing to earn money was being done competently they may also achieve a sense of competence.

As well as a sense of achievement there can be a hedonistic enjoyment of the material item and perhaps a perceived improvement in social status as friends and neighbours admire the new car and think how lucky or well off you must be.

Another example of goals based approach to happiness would be having a goal to achieve an increase in social status, say to gain a promotion to a manager position at work. Again while striving for this manager position there is a sense of purpose. When the position is gained there is a sense of achievement and possibly the improvement in social status with work colleagues, neighbours and friends. The person may also experience an increase in their sense of competence, their ability to perform the job has been recognised by others.

Limitations of Goals

However there are a number of problems with a simple goals based approach to happiness. Firstly you have to have the opportunity and resources to be able to work towards the goal and achieve the goal. If your goal was to buy the car, you would at the very least have to have a job that pays well enough that you will be able to save sufficient surplus over day to day living expenses so the car is achievable in the required time frame. Some goals may not be achievable so even with your best efforts the universe conspires to deny you the goal. If the goal is to buy a house, even if you have a job, interests rates or increasing house prices may mean that the goal cannot be achieved. Similarly a person could unexpectedly loose their job and therefore their saving goal is not achievable.

If the goal is not achieved then this may lead to a sense of dissatisfaction, which has unhappiness causing potential. And even if the goal is achieved the sense of achievement and the hedonistic enjoyment of a material item gained may not be long term.

If you have a goal to increase your social status, say by gaining the manager position promotion mentioned previously, then in particular you are relying on firstly other people giving you the promotion. Despite your best efforts this might not occur. Not everyone can be boss and there are always going to be people that are better educated or more competent or have better social or networking skills than you. They may even be luckier than you. Secondly, social status requires you to gain the esteem of other people. So even if you get the promotion they may still not be willing to give you the esteem for whatever reason.

For a goal to give a sense of purpose it has to be built up in importance to make its achievement seem to be worth the effort and the time required. On achievement of the goal there can often be a let down as it is realised that its importance and benefits aren't what was anticipated. This is sometimes seen in the field of sport where the athlete has a let down after the achievement of winning. The benefits are not experienced as anticipated and there is the question of "What now?"

This is the problem with what I have called empty goals, goals without any real purpose other than the goal itself. When it is achieved there is then the question of "What now?" With empty goals it is usually just another empty goal with a similar let down at the end.

In summary a goal based approach to happiness has a number of limitations:

It often, though not always, relies on having other people to either assist or not prevent you from achieving the goal;
You may not have the means to achieve the goal or you may be deprived of the means while pursuing the goal through no fault of your own, or even through a fault of your own; and/or
If the goal is seen as a purpose to life there may be a "let down" after its achievement and you may feel the need to go after another similar goal, thus commencing a "goal treadmill".

Taking the last point there are two ways of mitigating this limitation.

Firstly if you have a grand goal, one which may take you decades to achieve even if everything goes to plan. Then you could set sub goals as stepping stones along the way to the grand goal. Then when you achieve the sub goal and you ask the question of "What now?" you have the answer - the next sub-goal/stepping stone to the grand goal.

However let us look at this more closely. Have you really achieved anything by this? Sure you spread out the process and if things keep going along in the planned manner you are getting that sense of satisfaction through purpose, competence and achievement. However it is a big "IF". As discussed things may not go to plan. You may achieve half of your stepping stone goals and then stumble, possibly irreversibly as you are also relying on other people and things that are outside your ultimate control. And even if after say twenty years you achieve your grand goal are you sure you are not going to have that let down - what was it really all about? And twenty years is a big investment out of your life. You had better be sure that the grand goal is worth it.

The typical example of this would be someone aspiring to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO or boss) or even the divisional manger of the firm they are working in. The sub goals would be the various steps up the corporate ladder.

How can you be sure this grand goal is worthwhile? How can you be sure that even the lesser goals are not what I have called "empty goals"? What are the ways to avoid these goal based problems? This is where values come in.

Values

As I have said goals can give you purpose in life, however it is not the only way. Another way of having purpose in life is through living in accordance with your values (16) or in accordance with your personal philosophy of life. As stated in Part 1, Consciousness, values are the principles that are seen by the person as important and as good. Values are very different to goals. A goal can be achieved. E.g. your goal may be to save up to buy a car. Once you have done this then the goal is achieved. However a value continues forever, provided the value is backed by substantive reasoning that confirms its importance to you.

For example you may value the environment so even if you went out and spent a great week in the mountains communing with nature your valuing of the environment will not have been "achieved" or satiated, the value would go on.

It is interesting that in some sports, such as Australian swimming, there now seems to be an emphasis on achieving personal bests or being "the best you can", and not solely the goal of winning the gold medal. This is a values based approach, so even when a goal, which is now a values based goal, is achieved there is still the ongoing value of being the best you can. Therefore there may be less let down after winning the gold medal.

I suggest that if the way you live life is in line with a set of values that you have determined as worthwhile to you then you will believe that what you are doing is good and important. This is likely to have happiness causing potential. If you live in accordance with your values you may achieve a sense of purpose and though this a sense of satisfaction that you are living in way that is in line with what you believe to be important. This includes all aspects of life, from your personal life to public and work life.

A values based lifestyle as a source of potential happiness is important for a number of reasons. It does not rely on input from, or approval of, any other people and is available at all times. It can be very long term, because a person's values, provided they are underpinned by substantive reasoning, may remain unchanged for very long periods of time.

A values based life may involve the setting of goals that are in line with your values, however once the goal is achieved the underlying values are still there as an ongoing source of happiness and a guide to the next goal that could be pursued. This is unlike material goals which once achieved, and the pleasure of the item itself has faded, there is nothing.

Back to our example of the person who has set himself the grand goal of becoming the CEO of the company via the twenty year plan of stepping stone goals. How can he/she be certain they will not suffer a let down when they achieve this goal and suddenly think that this is not all that important after all? A simple answer to that is if she/he has a set of values and the becoming the CEO of the company serves those values then they are less likely to be a let down. Say the person has the value of believing that physical fitness is important for the happiness and wellness of everyone in the community. Then providing the community with really great fitness services is inline with this value. They may then see that the best way that they can service that value is by becoming the CEO of the fitness industry company that they work in, thus being able to implement all of their plans and provide really top-notch service to the community in their valued field.

All through their career they are working in an industry that aligns with their values, and so have an ongoing sense of purpose and achievement. Presumably if they are working in the industry and achieving various goals along the way that are recognised by their peers and their bosses they will also achieve a sense of competence. They will believe that they are truly capable of performing the tasks and providing the services in a competent manner. Then the achievement of the stepping stone goals gives a further sense of achievement. Even if they achieve the level of the CEO, the grand goal, this just enables them to get a higher sense of achievement as they are delivering the valued service to the best of their ability. However even if their career stagnates and they do not get to the position of CEO they still have the satisfaction of working in the industry that aligns to their values. The goal itself is always one level down, it is not the ultimate aim of the process, it is just a means of living in accordance with the values.

The above may have given the impression that to achieve happiness it is necessary to be striving for a high position in a work place. But this is not the case at all. Striving for high position is a goal that can be sought if desired but is not necessary to live a values based life. Values can apply to the performance of work and all other aspects of life at all levels. A nurse may have the value of believing that all people in the community deserve a high level of health care and being a nurse is her/his way of living in accordance with this value. She need not aspire to move into hospital management or to become matron. A sewerage worker may see his work as providing a valued service to the community (imagine what would happen if the sewage stopped flowing!). People can be very happy working in a selected job at whatever level they want without striving to move higher, especially if they manage to achieve satisfaction through a sense of competence, achievement and purpose. And even if they are not working in a job that particularly aligns with any of their values they can still achieve satisfaction from the job from being competent and gaining a level of achievement. And they may be able to align other aspects of their life to their values, and achieve values based purpose and satisfaction from that source.

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Values Based Lifestyle

Living in accordance to values, or a values based lifestyle, is a Thought based approach. A values based lifestyle will induce positive Self Thoughts through the generation of a sense of satisfaction that you are living your life in line with your values. Your values are the things that you believe to be important.

Everybody's values are different. If they weren't then everybody would want to work in the same job, treat everyone the same way and do largely the same types of things.

The first step to a values based lifestyle is to use your Intellect to understand the world and determine your values.

I would also like to differentiate between types of values.

The first type is values that are personal values, for example "I value fitness". This is good but it is a good related solely to the self.

The next type would be values associated with family, friends and community and could even extend as far as values associated with your country, e.g. I value my family, or I love my country.

The third type of values, universal values, is based on what a person perceives as a more universal good. The universal value may be (although not necessarily) underpinned or informed by what is understood by the person as meaning in life or personal philosophy. Universal values will often be particularly important to a person. They can often give meaning to a person's life, especially when the person's work life or important hobby or community activity is linked to this value. It can be a potent source of happiness.

Also be aware that you can have a number of values included in each type of values, e.g. you may have a couple of universal values.

There are often crossovers in the various types of values. If I say I value the environment it could be a personal value in that I value being outside in native forest. However it could also mean that I value the environment in total, not just my personal enjoyment of it. I could see the state of the environment as an intrinsic and universal good, so even if I couldn't enjoy it personally it would still be important that the environment was there and in a healthy state.

It is likely that different values will be in ascendancy in each part of life however they should all still apply. Ideally no one value should override another value such as those related to family and individual although at some point a person may be faced with a dilemma where values do conflict and a choice needs to be made. All values are, by definition, important to you and therefore each value needs to be given attention.

Once you have determined your values they can be used to guide how to live, including choosing goals, the type of work to do and the approach to work and other aspects of life. Use your Intellect, and the associated skills, to work towards the goals associated with values and ensure other aspects of life are in accord with the chosen values. Through this you will achieve a sense of purpose and a sense of satisfaction which will be interpreted on the positive side of the happiness continuum.

How do you determine your values? One way is to ask yourself what is really important to you. Create a list with the various aspects of your life. There might be family, work, community, personal, and universal. For each aspect list the things that you value. For aspects of your values system such as your universal values it might depend on your personal philosophy of life, and how you answer to your own satisfaction the big questions of life. For example you might have a conventional religious view. The ideas taught by that religion would then guide you in determining your universal values and some of the values that are important to you. You might have a humanistic philosophy. Again the ideas taught by this philosophy would be greatly influential in determining your values. You might have your own personal philosophy that you have developed over the years from your investigations and understandings in which case this would guide you in determining at least some your values.

Another aspect to determining your values is that the values adopted should either be ethically (17) good values or ethically neutral. While ethically bad values might work for the happiness of the person who holds the values they may make the other people the person interacts with unhappy. Without arguing from first principles, this is not desirable.

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There are other Self Thought approaches to happiness. For example humour can be a potent source of happiness however each instance is short term. Despite this it may still be worthwhile to you. Gratitude is also an easy way of generating positive Self Thoughts. It is simply a matter of recognising that you have a lot to be grateful for. Even if you think you are not that fortunate in your life recognise that there are a lot of people who are worse off than you and this is something to be grateful for. From gratitude you derive a sense of satisfaction.

If you think of or read about another approach to happiness that may work for you that is good. You just have to be aware of any limitations associated with the approach so you know what reliance you can place on it.

I will now look at Intellect thought processes that can lead to happiness.

Next Page - Intellect and Imagination

Notes:

16. ACT also talks extensively about the use of Values as a guide to living a worthwhile life.

17. In this site I have used the term ethics and ethical rather than morals or morality.

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