Brian Johnson breaks down Tal Ben-Shahar's four life approaches: Rat Racers sacrifice now for later, Hedonists live for today and ignore tomorrow, Nihilists check out entirely, and Happy People balance both. The goal is climbing toward the peak while actually enjoying the climb.
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Hey, guys, what's up? This is Brian with another optimal living 101 video. Today we're going to talk about are you a rat racer, a hedonist, a nihilist, or a happy person? A rat racer, a hedonist, a nihilist, or a happy person. Now, of course, we all have elements of each of these at different points and in different domains of our life. But let's take a look at the happiness archetype. But a guy named Talbin Shahar who taught the most popular class in Harvard's history called Positive Psychology 101. Then he wrote a book about that class called Happier. We've got a philosopher's note on that. Happier. We're going to pull on some of my favorite big ideas from there and talk about his happiness archetype and figure out where we are. Rat racer, hedonist, nihilist, happy person, etc. Now, this was a big part of our goals class. We talked about how to set goals that will actually make you happy. It's an important thing to consider because a lot of us are ambivalent about goals. So let's take a look at Tal's model. So he says we can have orientations toward the future and the present that are either positive. I'm sorry, negative or positive toward the future. Negative or positive toward the present. Now, if we have a positive orientation to the future, but a negative orientation to the present, we are a rat racer. Welcome to Western civilization. It's all about the future, all the time. Screw the moment, right, Rat racer. Now, if you say, I don't like that. I want to be in the moment. I want to have a really positive relationship with the moment. And you know what? The future goals aren't good. They get you out of the moment. I just want to be in the moment. Well, then you are officially in this model, a hedonist. A lot of people who misread Tolle or the Bhagavad Gita, they just want the power of now. Get rid of goals, and they just try to be in the now. Well, that's not the most effective way to approach things. And even Tolle talks about the fact that goals are important, which we don't want to slip into what he calls psychological time, where we have anxiety and nervousness and all this stuff about the future, set a goal, go for it, etc. Part of a longer conversation. But for now, back to this model. So, positive for the future, negative for the present. We're a rat racer, Negative for the future. But Positive for the present. We are a hedonist. Negative to the future, negative to the present. You have a nihilist who's bounced back and forth between this and this, and then basically just says, screw it. I am upset with life. I give up. I am now officially a cynic. Very interesting when you're a nihilist. Welcome to cynicism. A cynic is really just a disillusioned idealist. Michael Gelb shared this idea at a Conscious Capitalism event a few years ago. A disillusioned idealist. And I like to say that the greater the initial idealism, plus the current level of despair, the greater the level of cynicism. So if you were super passionate about life and just all giddy and now you're just not feeling it, you've kind of bounced back and forth between these. You're in a deep place of nihilism, which is going to express itself often in cynicism. So negative, negative. Now, what we want to see, of course, is a positive orientation to the future in a positive orientation to the present. And then we have the happy archetype, the happiness archetype. Now, the rat racer is a slave to the future. The hedonist is a slave to the moment, and the nihilist is a slave to the past. What we want to do is hold both set goals that inspire us and enjoy the moment. Here's how Tal puts it. He says attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable. Happiness is not about making it to the peak of the mountain, nor is it about climbing aimlessly around the mountain. Happiness is the experience of climbing toward the peak. Thank you, Talbin Shahar. So there you go. Where are you? Are you a rat racer falling into the future Too much? Are you a hedonist, all about the now? Are you a nihilist? And you've kind of given up on both. Were you a happy person who's really embracing goals that inspire you and the process? So you're loving the moment in pursuit of a goal that has deep meaning for you and hopefully is tied to you, creating enormous value in the world and delivering profound service, using your gifts in service to your family, your community, your world, etc. We will talk about all of this some more going forward. We'll talk about how to put this into action. We did in the goals class, which you can still sign up for and as always, invite you to join our monthly program where I go into these ideas in detail. All you can optimize. We call it Optimum 101. All you can optimize. I'll put a link below. And here's to having another awesome day. See ya.
