Finding happiness through passion

vutran | Aug. 29, 2021, 9:30 a.m.

3 types of happiness: pleasure, passion, and higher purpose.

1. Pleasure: This type of happiness is about always chasing the next high, very hard to maintain.
2. Passion: Also known as “flow,” where peak performance meets peak engagement, and time flies by.
3. Higher Purpose: This is about being part of something bigger than yourself that has meaning to you.

The happiness that arises from pleasure is highly unsustainable. Once the pleasurable stimulus ceases, or if you habituate to it, then your happiness returns to your default set point. Happiness that arises from flow is much more sustainable and you are far less likely to habituate to it. Happiness arising from higher purpose, is highly sustainable, this form of happiness is very resilient and can last for a very long time, especially if that higher purpose has an altruistic origin.

Interestingly, we instinctively chase after pleasure believing it to be the source of sustainable happiness. Many of us spend most of our time and energy chasing pleasure, sometimes enjoying flow, and once in a while, we think about higher purpose. Happiness insight suggests we should be doing precisely the reverse. We should be spending most of our time and energy working on higher purpose, sometimes enjoying flow, and every now and then, savoring rock-star pleasure. This is the most logical path toward sustainable happiness.

— Chade Meng Tan, Tony Hsieh in Search Inside Yourself

1 path for Passion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai