How to have visionary happiness in the here and now
Do you find happiness in your work for societal change? Do you find that your work has a sense of direction, with long-term goals? You may find that your work brings with it consequences for your mental health. On the one side, perhaps you invest your energies in a distant future and attach your happiness to a undefined point in the future, while on the other side you may concentrate your attention on the present day.
Look at this chart, taken from Vishen Lakhiani.
On one axis is your level of present happiness, on the other your level of a vision for the future. Where do you position yourself on the chart? Are you lacking in a future vision, present happiness, or even worse, both? Lakhiani has pointed out that having a vision without having present happiness can lead to anxiety and continual dissatisfaction. I believe that this can also lead to melancholy and a strange attachment to defeat.
At the same time, perhaps you have present happiness while at the same time have no vision for the future. The danger here, so says Lakhiani, is that you doesn’t grow. You can enter into stagnation and reactive to external events.
Lakhiani points out that a combination of both poles are needed. He calls this combination “bending reality”. We can work more sustainably for our mental health when we take a moment every day to see what we have gratitude for. You should aim for “bending reality”. What do you therefore need to work on, a vision, present happiness, or both? Without present happiness we get bitter. Without a vision we lack direction and enable others with authoritarian visions to gain power.
Exercise
If you lack present happiness I advise you to take five minutes to think about the things that you are thankful for in your relations with others, in your work, and about yourself. Think of five things for each category. Commit to doing this for a week (say, as you lie in bed just before you get up), and see how you feel in a week’s time.
If you lack a future vision, consider how you can utopise your work. Consider how (a) you would like your area of concern to look like in 10 years, and think about (b) what needs to happen in order to achieve that. Don’t be rational or realistic. Have wild fantasies! The magic of bending reality is that by tying the present day to the future, you can see how much power you have to co-create the society that you want, achieving more than you thought possible.
Happy dreaming!
