In that most important tome of positive psychology, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihalyi talks about how athletes get "in the zone" or when workers "lose themselves" into their work. This is being in "flow" and Mihalyi argues that it's possible to live everyday in flow. The idea is to achieve the appropriate balance between challenge and skills. This graphic is key:

In the later chapters, Mihaly extends the concept of flow to the rest of our lives, and believes that happiness comes from leading an entire life in flow. To understand this requires looking at the graphic a little differently:

You know that saying, "follow your fears"? I think that's precisely what this is talking about. While you may be challenging yourself everyday at work (I know I am), if your career as a whole isn't a challenge for you, how can you expect to be growing appropriately?

In the last couple days, I've thought a lot about what I cling to for safety. I've tried to challenge myself and see where I can let go.

More goodies from Seligman's Authentic Happiness

H = S + C + V

H: your enduring level of happiness
S: your set range
C: circumstances of your life
V: factors under your voluntary control

This post focuses on C, circumstances such as religion, wealth, health etc.. and it's impact on your happiness.

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After starting Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness, I think that the word "happiness" should be reclassified as a verb or at least a gerrund (a verb with a +ing at the end, "to happ" perhaps or "happinessing" ??).

I gained this insight strolling over this passage:

Muscle physiology distingushes between tonic activity (the baseline of electrical activity when the muscle is idling) and phasic activity (the burst of electrical activity when the muscle is challenged and contracts). Most of psychology is about tonic activity; introversion, high IQ, depression, and anger, for example, are all measured in the absence of any real-world challenge, and the hope of the psychometrician is to predict what a person will actually do when confronted with a phasic challenge. How well do tonic measures fare? Does a high IQ predict a truly canny response to a customer saying no? How well does tonic deperession predict collapse when a person is fired? "Moderately well, but imperfectly" is the best general answer. Psychology as usual predicts many of the cases, but there are huge numbers of high-IQ people who fail, and another huge number of low-IQ people who succeed when life challenges them to do something actually intelligent in the world. The reason for all these errors is that tonic measures are only moderate predictors of phasic action. I call this imperfection in prediction the Harry Truman effect. Truman, after an undistinguished life, to almost everyone's surprise rose to the occasion when FDR died and ended up becoming one of the greatest presidents. (Page 12)

I read this as an important innovation in our perspective on happiness. Being happy shouldn't be considered a moment in which you assess yourself like with a thermometor and say, "aaah, okay now I'm happy." Or for example, we shouldn't pursue happiness with statements like, "if I could just get that promotion, I'd be happy."

Happiness should possibly be re-tooled as a verb. Instead of asking, "are you happy?" we should ask, "how is happiness going for you?" like it's a thing you do. Or like, "is what you are doing happiness?"

Ghandi or other smart people have said similar things: "It's not the destination, it's the journey that counts". or, "enjoy the ride".

The key, it seems, is to have happy journeys. Even if your relationship doesn't work out, or your job falls to shreds, or America is screwed, there should always be a way that you can either spin or position yourself so that you carry on with grace.

To me, I'm starting to look at happiness--in the verb sense--as a process of disengaging myself from idleness. When I'm drawn to action by a positive motivator, then that is happiness. Happiness is being compelled to act with enthusiasm. For example, building stuff is happinessing, as is having great conversations. Pursuing women, at times, is a happiness-process, as is journalling my thoughts.

None of these things make me happy, but rather they are happiness.

Answering the question, "How can I do something with enthusiasm?" may be the path to happiness.

I am no expert on being happy, though, but these are just some nuggets to stir your thought. Plus, I love anything that changes my ontology. This is as much my own attempt to find happiness as it is to offer advice.

David G. Myers: Research Based Suggestions for a Happier Life.

Many of them are similar to other research I found online.

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On a side note to this "positive psychology" mumbo jumbo, this is an interesting analysis...

PE (Positive Experience) Anatomy

This is a minimal outline of the model I have developed since 1984 based on the beleif that positive experiences are our most valued personal assets and inner resources. I offer training seminars and coaching based on this model.

Here's a quick reference guide to what psychologists determine as the "secret to happiness". Click below to read my short summary.

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The Secret of Happiness

The once-fuzzy picture of what makes people happy is coming into focus as psychologists no longer shun the study of happiness. In the mid-'90s, scientific journals published about 100 studies on sadness for every one study on happiness.

Life satisfaction occurs most often when people are engaged in absorbing activities that cause them to forget themselves, lose track of time and stop worrying. "Flow" is the term Claremont Graduate University psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced cheeks-sent-mee-hi) coined to describe this phenomenon.

Another interesting bit...

People aren't very good at predicting what will make them happy, cutting-edge research shows.

The Secret of Happiness

The key to happiness is to appreciate what you have. Sounds simple. So why are so many people unhappy? Get the tools you need for tapping into unlimited richness, pleasure and joy.

So I took a Mental Health Quality of Life assessment. It was somewhat illuminating in that I could see a connection between failure in one area with failure in another.

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Article & Commentary about how people are bad at reaching happiness. Posted by the same guy that does matrix essays.

(Picked up one of those $1.29 minibooks from the grocery store, didn't read it, just the quotes)

"We do not remember days. We remember moments." - Cesare Pavese

"Happiness is like a butterfly. When you pursue it, it is always beyond your grasp. But when you sit down, it may alight upon you." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." - Victor Borge

"Happiness sneaks through a door you didn't know you left open." - John Barrymore

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln

"Happiness is a state of mind." - My dad, anonymous, (not in book, but relevant)

"If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for a moment." - Georgia O'Keefe

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on." - Robert Frost

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." - Eddie Cantor

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust

"Happiness is like jam. You can't spread even a little without getting some on yourself." - Mark Twain

"The reason angels can fly is they take themselves so lightly. - G.K. Chesterton

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." - Benjamin Franklin

"I can only think of one thing greater than being happy, and that is to help another be happy, too." - Jim Thomson

"I don't go by the rule book. I lead from the heart, not from the head." - Princess Diana

"Action may not bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." - Benjamin Disraeli

"We all live with the objective of being happy. Our lives are different and yet the same." - Anne Frank

I always found it difficult to endorse "being happy" as a goal. The internal invocation, "Phil, be happy" only came up in times of great distress. Otherwise, making personal happiness a priority seemed to be a little bit selfish. I'd always have my conscience counter with, "what about the kids in Africa." Others include, well, maybe happiness is not as important as let's say, glory, honor, victory, success. Or what about other people's happiness and not my own.

I do hold a categorical imperative at this moment, but it's hard to describe, it's almost redundant, just like the maxim "Everything in moderation." -- Because if something was truly an excess for you, then why would you do it? I guess the human system isn't perfect.