Our quest for meaning and its connection with happiness

All of us are aware of the passing of time, and would rather use it wisely, be it for our personal needs or for people around us. Isn’t this a challenge directly in line with our search for happiness?

According to Buddhism, we should have the courage to accomplish positive acts, in particular when it comes to combatting laziness, one of the five obstacles to the awakening of the soul. Of the Pāramitās, or transcendent virtues, Vigilent Energy is the one presented as its antidote. The Buddhists’ teaching as to the urgency of being vigilent and moving to the essential is quite clear and drastic:

In general, it seems to me that this point of view is based in the Eastern culture, in lands more familiar with the science of meditation. But in our context, what would a typical performance-oriented Westerner reply if I told him to drop all his projects and turn to that which gives meaning to life. And what would he say if I added that it would be laziness not to do so. It is most likely that he would tell me that such noble precepts are one thing, but are practically impossible to put into daily practice. He would be rather resourceless when it comes to applying this. He might even point out that most people have neither the time, nor the resources or the knowledge to prioritize the essentials over the details. All the same, he might have great respect for the teachings of the East. As a matter of fact, a majority of us, Westerners, long to discover such age-old practices which generate peace, well-being, and fulfillment.

Do we not often feel devoid when it comes to using our judgment faced with the innumerable obligations and necessities that only leave us little room to move. This question leads to another, that is, how can we concretely manage our life in a direction that suits us better. We are open to new precepts on condition that they suit our reality. This issue seems to me more present in the West.

I am therefore speaking mainly to very active people who have multiple interests and struggle with constraints of performance, and especially of time. And, come to think of it, this is regardless of whether they live in the West or the East. A large base of the population shares common challenges and interests related to these questions, one of which is the desire to deliver quality work in the available time. Reaching a certain degree of comfort and happiness at work is another. As a matter of fact, the question is far wider because life as a whole is what this is really about. All of these aspirations form a whole. Whether of a philosophical or practical nature, they are legitimate and worth considering.

I’m largely convinced that the search for happiness lies in the action, in that we have to act with this intention. When it’s about self-fulfillment, it’s easy to find a multitude of books giving us the best advice. For the down-to-earth side, however, we turn to organizational tools, especially those dedicated to time management. On the one hand, we care for our souls, and on the other we don’t neglect the technical and organizational aspects.

Although meaning well, we might experience difficulties in aligning the way we lead our activities and our search for happiness. In fact, it is often in different places and at different times of our lives that we address these two aspects. For example, in the evening we might read a book about how to apprehend existence when we have worked all day in another state of mind altogether, striving to be efficient, but also shelving the ultimate objective of being happy. The work might be well paid, but stressful and unsatisfying. Our life led us where we are at in response to the decisions we made and the numerous events that marked our journey. The goal we were pursuing, if any, becomes hard to fulfill. The meaning we want to give to our life doesn’t follow because it is difficult to embody in daily life.

However it so happens that suffering and hardships are easier to deal with when we have set ourselves a goal. According to Matthieu Richard, a Buddhist monk, the mountain climber who sets himself the goal of reaching a summit will find it easier to bear the hail and the cold, or any other difficulty that will unavoidably arise. As a matter of fact, renowned psychologist Ariane Bilheran extensively developed on the impact of meaninglessness of our well-being…

Of course this existential question concerning the link between our actions and the meaning of our life is not a simple one. Don’t worry, however, it is not my intention to answer it, although… Let’s start with the very basic point of view that life is just a sequence of days, one following another, and that we can only live them one at a time. From there, let’s consider what an agenda is: an apparently insignificant tool where we record events. But what if it were quite the reverse, and we considered it to be significant, a powerfully space for creation, a part of the solution to this search for meaning. Dentist appointments can perfectly neighbor the planning of a thoroughly gestated trip. As a matter of fact, that is the challenge. Managing to embody our dreams and deepest aspirations in our daily lives. The agenda then becomes a place to reflect on our future, and to program events generated by this process. From the moment we perceive our agenda as a space for empowerment, we may question ourselves in concrete terms: What must be done for our true nature to emerge from the person we are becoming.

What stops us from making it happen. How could we fulfill ourselves through our daily actions. Why don’t we succeed. How can we counter this irresistible intense agitation that always drags us into undesired situations. Furthermore, what is recorded in our agenda is the result of a fine synergy between our tool and our thoughts. It seems obvious to me that this content is the result of the means used and the mental processes as well.

The use of a paper agenda rather than an electronic one will not have the same impact on our lives. “I make do with a paper agenda. It’s fine for me,” some will say.

This is quite possible. However there will always be a difference - a small one, perhaps, but there will be one, for sure. There was a time when a horse was plenty to get to the village. There was no need of a car then. Maybe at first the advantage that the car offered was insignificant, but today this is indisputable. So the content and the quality of the planning process are sensitive to the concrete means through which it is carried out. In this digital era, the fabric of our existence is woven with increasingly complex contingencies, and the adoption of more sophisticated tools will inevitably become more popular. As for mental processes, I believe that when it comes to organizing our activities they are at least as much of a determinative as the tool in itself. By mental processes I mean the analyses that we carry out, our capacity to concentrate, our ability to process several subjects at the same time – in brief, our way of thinking and interacting. So our choices strongly depend on the mechanics of our mind.

And these mechanics are very sensitive to the tools we use and our physical and mental state. This being so, it seems justified to invest efforts to inventing an electronic agenda which harmonises as closely as possible with the natural functioning of our brain, and more widely , with the human beings we are. Clearly, we must not only reinvent the agenda, but also imagine healthy and effective ways to use it. You might find all this quite theorical, and feel it necessary to have a precise example of what such a process would be. If such is the case, you may wish to read the following reflection on retrospection, analysis and decision-making. This type of exercise may be similar to the process that you carry out at the end of the year and which leads to your New Year’s resolutions.

Using an electronic agenda means more than to just program events in time slots. On the one hand, information technology brings about all sorts of new functions into a time-management application and on the other hand it allows for interaction between the application and our entire digital universe.

Notice that the expression electronic agenda tends to give way more and more to time management app. Our relationship with the tool has become much more dynamic. Events can be moved around more easily, reminder alarms are possible, information can be shared with other people, etc. And what is among the most interesting facts, in my opinion, is that it enables us to analyze and organize our ideas… to generate meaning. Just like the horse as means of transportation, the paper agenda has its limits for analysis and organization. Compared to a paper agenda, a well-designed digital application makes it easier to identify phenomena responsible for the unhealthy relationship we have with time that we referred to above. In my view, the app must not only make possible the programming of events in time but also offer a coherent and clear overall view of the state of our activities, our ideas, and our projects.

Consequently, when discontent about time flying, should we not evaluate if our activities are organized in a clear and coherent way. Should we not assess the level of disorder in our situation that often is only a reflection of our state of mind. Experimenting living in perpetual shambles might be amusing to someone visiting our life.

But for us, living in such a mess is generally very noxious. It can easily mortgage our energy, leaving us spun out and anguished. It may even become a source of irritation and suffering for our loved ones. Without trying exceedingly to control everything, we have to find a balance that suits us. Of course this will not answer all of our existential questions, but sorting out our ideas lowers our stress, simplifies our life and raises our self-awareness. Bearing in mind the premise that we are provided with good technological and intellectual tools to fill our agenda, let us now return to the more philosophical question, the meaning of life. It is by the lump of short daily periods of time planning that we manage to bring meaning to our whole life. With each choice we make, however small, we create our future.

And it is precisely in this series of present moments that we prioritize, or fail to prioritize essentials over details. The agenda would then become a place of creation since it offers, thanks to certain features, a place to reflect and analyze our past and our future. Therefore, I am willing to bet that the quality of this tool can have a beneficial effect on the quality of our life by helping us adopt a direction that complies with our deepest aspirations. I am of the opinion that the quality of the work is not completely independent from the paintbrushes and the canvas. All in all, I stated a few principles that appear to me to be connected with happiness. First of all, building happiness in life goes through daily actions. The motives for these actions must then be compliant with our deep aspirations.

Meaning emerges more easily from clear thoughts and well-organized activities. The quality of our thoughts and our activities depends on the tools that we use and our physical and mental state. F202.M20150524116 F202.M20150524117 F202.M20150524118