What Makes Life Worth the Trouble?
Currently many people who are experiencing isolation at home are finding it challenging - wondering how to fill the day; how to overcome boredom; avoiding becoming depressed and anxious about the future; experiencing loneliness. For those with families there is the added dilemma of how to keep them safe, occupied and happy.
This is particularly true for people who normally have very busy working lives; who rarely think of anything apart from work and spend a good deal of time worrying about getting new business or getting work completed on time. They are pleased that their days fly past, days which turn into weeks, months and years. Glad to get this or that week / month / year over with.
So, perhaps this is an opportune time to take stock and ask yourself what is really important in life for you… what makes it ‘worth the trouble’? What fills you with joy… what is it that has intrinsic value / meaning for you? That which has no other purpose than the activity in which you are participating.
In his book ‘Running with the Pack’, the philosopher, Mark Rowlands, makes the distinction between the activities that have instrumental value / meaning* and those that have intrinsic value / meaning* for us. He writes… “When I do something only for the sake of something else, what I am doing is a form of work.”
Daniel Pink writing in his book ‘Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,’ states that “most businesses haven’t caught up to the new understanding of what motivates us.” In relation to goal setting for example – used in some form or other by many organisations - he warns… “Goals may cause systematic problems for organisations due to narrowed focus, unethical behaviour, increased risk taking, decreased co-operation and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organisation.” **
What we tend to do in the ‘West’ is to fill our life with activities that have instrumental value / meaning*. We work hard at our jobs to increase our status, income, to develop our careers in order that we can have a nice house, a car or cars, have holidays, bring up a family etc. But what do we have left over for the things that have intrinsic value / meaning* for us… the things we do which give us pleasure in just doing? Exercise, sport and even intimacy, all of which should be playful, can become a means to an end rather than for the intrinsic value within the activity.
Golf is another good example of this as many golfers – perhaps most? – will often practise hard to get a better score, to reduce their handicap, to win competitions etc rather than enjoy the intrinsic value of hitting a good golf shot. What if they simply played for the intrinsic pleasure they experience hitting as many good golf shots as possible during their round? I’m sure it would take a great deal of the angst out of the game that golfers experience when they turn play into an instrumental activity.
I remember when running became my major form of exercising after I retired from playing rugby. Having then hated ‘going for a run’ in training – instrumental in getting me fit to play - I began to enjoy running purely for its own sake. I remember well running across the Braid Hills golf course in Edinburgh on a Sunday morning without the consciousness that I was training for something else… with nothing else than just being in the moment… only for the intrinsic pleasure of being able to run.
Be careful not to turn your isolating activities into something you have to achieve within a certain time frame or have a plan that has to be achieved by…
Why not just?
… Be in the moment… enjoying a walk, an easy run, a good book, pottering in the garden, a conversation on Skype / Zoom with a friend, watching a favourite film - only for the intrinsic pleasure that we experience without a goal to achieve.
Relax and enjoy this opportunity to take stock and appreciate the intrinsic pleasures that make life ‘worth the trouble’!
* ‘Meaning’ is an addition by me to Mark Rowlands use of ‘Value’
** An excerpt from a previous blog ‘So you think you’re a motivator?... Think again!’
April 2020
Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash