Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Happiness

I stumbled across this blog post recently and found it really interesting.

SetHigherStandards

I try to continually evaluate all the areas of my own life, from faith to marriage to career to activities I'm involved in and the like. My goal being to keep myself somewhat in check with what I'm doing, where I'm going, etc.

It also seems that everywhere you go, when striking up a conversation with a stranger, the question is inevitably asked about work and how well you....like, enjoy, are passionate about (you insert the word that best describes your conversations)......what you do. Most people brush over it.....I mean, it is a stranger after all. Some people answer the question very honestly, which usually leads to a lengthy discussion as to the reason for said work unhappiness. Regardless, it seems that happiness (however you choose to define it) is something we are enamored with and maybe even a little confused by.

Some time ago, I listened to a cassette tape (come on, you remember what those are) while driving home from college by John Piper on Hedonism. I was quite fascinated by his take on what he definied as Christian Hedonism. Where does our desire for happiness come from? Is it 'right' to desire said happiness rather than desiring other things.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of happiness in what you do for a living, I think it's extremely important to keep the idea percolating through all that grey matter!

2 comments:

  1. Shane ... what do you do for work? (and why do you enjoy it)?

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  2. GZ...touche.

    I'm a mechanical engineer for a manufacturing company. I have no particular tie to what we make. The part of my job that I enjoy most is the soft part....the people part. Getting to work with people (hence, get to know them well) that I wouldn't normally is great. I get a glimpse of who they are, what encourages (and discourages) them and have to learn how to approach each of them. People are by far the most fascinating part of my job.....they're also the most difficult. I've often wondered what a job would be like if I had a stronger tie to what I was doing (e.g. designing running shoes or mountain bikes). Who knows what the future will hold. My boss is on his 3rd career and seems to draw various strengths (and maybe can better identify weaknesses) from all of them.

    I must also add that there are other positive, challenging parts of my job.

    Thanks for the question. BTW, are you heading up to Fort Collins this weekend?

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