Happiness Theory

"A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness,“ wrote the physicist Albert Einstein. 

Ran into this one yesterday. Decided that it was worthy of inclusion into the class monologue this morning. I took some liberties with his wise words and for the sake of continuity suggested a few of my own. Please remember that our group consists primarily of highly successful, educated, outstanding members of the community, so when I riff on Einstein it is out of respect and awe, not because I think that I have better insights to relativity or physics. I will argue with Ryand, challenge Milton and question John Stewart Mill, but Albert? No way. Maybe when I understand the velocity of twice the speed of light, I might. All this is to illustrate the delicate balancing act necessary to keep from falling from the tightrope I walk with this group. They are smart. They live in beautiful waterfront homes on an exclusive gem of an island  in Puget Sound. They drive nice cars. They have put bright and motivated kids through some of the most notable institutions of higher leaning in the world. They have made a difference. Who am I to tell them about happiness? 

Wanting nothing but their health and fitness moved in the direction of ‘better’, I use the words simplicity, harmonic balance and peaceful in augmentation to those suggested by one of the brightest minds of our species. I feel the words could possibly suit our specific group in a way that calm and modest might not. Remember that this is a spin class cleverly disguised as a science lab. We test and we train. 

There is the distinct possibility that modest is synonymous with humble and calm with peaceful. You can add your interpretation. The tricky passage is the second part. This, as might be obvious, due to the fact that the very way prescribed as a path to happiness is exactly the one many in our group, and our society, have traversed to get where they are today: Hard work, the pursuit of success and its relentless supporting activities. But perhaps you have heard about what happened to Johnny with an all work and no play routine?

One of the tools we now use to gauge positive trending of the trajectory of our efforts is something we call ACQ. Athletic Character Quotient. And while nowhere near as sexy as Energy equals matter and the speed of light squared, it does provide the utility of measurement required to address the ever changing results of our testing and training. It also has the inherent element of awareness attached, as one’s empirical estimation of real-time quality of effort is addressed simultaneously. We measure this on the Borg scale of 1-10, 1 being an effort totally devoid of focus, output or enthusiasm, and 10 being the best of the best, aces, flags flapping in the breeze of appreciation and gratitude. For we know that perfection is a pipe dream, the impossible dream, the realm of the dreamer. We seek therefore perfect effort. And, as Einstein might have appreciated, this is our relativistic manifesto. 

For the fact that, as illustrated above, while one may possess all the accoutrements of success, he or she may feel something is missing. That 'thing' is usually one of three, and these are the three we worked on this morning: Health, inner peace and happiness. If one is deficient in any of those areas, one will sooner or later have to address them. 

Ask yourself right now what you would barter for these. Is a new car of equal value to your good health? What is the accessed taxable value of your piece of mind? And how does your portfolio of happiness match up with your net worth? 

It has been suggested by many, and I humbly submit my inclusion to their ranks, that Einstein’s most important work was not about the physics of relativity, but in regard to happiness theory. 

Seek perfect effort and the atoms will take care of themselves (at any rate of speed).