Hi there,
Hope you’ve been doing some thinking on the activities you engage in throughout your day.
As promised, we’ll dive a little deeper into the activities that can lead us to Subjective Wellbeing.
First of all, you need to be the designer of your own activities. And this is how they become unique to you.
So what are the secret ingredients for the activities?
P.Desmet & Pohlmeyer advocate to design these activities following the Positive Design Framework.
Their research and testing indicate that it will stimulate Subjective Wellbeing.
The 3 ingredients are:
- Design for Virtue (being a morally good person)
- Design for Pleasure (experiencing positive affect)
- Design for Personal Significance (pursuing personal goals).
Figure 1 adapted from P.Desmet & Pohlmeyer
So whether you are designing an office, your work activities for the day, your employees Retreat vacation, your kids extra curriculum activities, think about designing activities that pertain to at least one of these ingredients.
The idea of Positive Design doesn’t have to address all ingredients with the same intensity but going beyond per se - Designing for Pleasure only – should be the aim, thus helping the individual reach full potential and Subjective Wellbeing.
Now you may ask how do these ingredients look like in reality?
The authors give an example in the following scenario:
“This person can find Virtue in being sincere, maintaining order, and striving for wisdom; he/she could seek Personal Significance through the ambition of developing leadership skills, work towards a promotion or start on a new project; and could find Pleasure in enjoying lunches, taking short breaks and in sharing successes with colleagues.”
How are you empowering yourself, your loved ones, your colleagues, your employees to engage in a variety of work and life activities that set them on the path to true Happiness?
Does the built environment you currently inhabit support these activities? Can you alter it to make it work better for you?
Now, I could assume my cousin Jessie is probably a happy person because of a high percentage of her Genetic SetPoint, but is it really?
Knowing the activities she engages in and the 3 ingredients of the Positive Design Framework, I can say she ticks all the right boxes and is just smoothly riding the happiness wave.
Are you ready to join in?
Relevant reading: 3 Ingredients to your Happiness Recipe | Part 1