Optimize for Joy.

Joy (n.) ¹ – “feeling of pleasure and delight;” c. 1300, “source of pleasure or happiness,” from Old French joie “pleasure, delight, erotic pleasure, bliss, joyfulness” (11c.), from Latin gaudia “expressions of pleasure; sensual delight,” plural of gaudium “joy, inward joy, gladness, delight; source of pleasure or delight,” from gaudere “rejoice,” from PIE root *gau- “to rejoice” (cognates: Greek gaio “I rejoice,” Middle Irish guaire “noble”).

We all want to be happy at some point in our life; all the striving and chasing is all geared toward what we think happiness means to us. Optimizing for joy means doing only things that are making rejoice, laugh, feel good about yourself, surrounding yourself with high-energy people, avoiding energy drainers and protecting your peace. One of the ways that I have tried to achieve what the French call “Joie de vivre” – cheerful enjoyment of life, is by partaking in a lot of activities that raise my spirit, give me joy and make me hopeful for a brighter tomorrow.

I spend at least one-sixth of my daily 24 hours doing activities that are optimized for joy such as exercising in the gym (basketball shooting, swimming, weight lifting, pickle ball, badminton), participating in outdoor activities such as lawn tennis, outdoor cycling and outdoor running. One of my favourite activities is to read a great book or listen to an audiobook. Life is full of ups and downs, the challenges keep coming as it is not a matter of if but when. Having coping mechanisms that are optimized for getting joyful has made the bad days not too bad and solving the issues has not been too harsh.

In his 2015 University of Houston Commencement Speech, Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey delivered a very inspiring speech wherein he described the difference between Joy and Happiness.

“I just want to be happy.” I hear that all the time. But what IS happiness? Happiness is an emotional response to an outcome — If I win I will be happy, if I don’t I won’t. An if-then, cause and effect, quid pro quo standard that we cannot sustain because we immediately raise it every time we attain it. You see, happiness demands a certain outcome, it is result reliant.

If happiness is what you’re after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy much of your time. Joy, though, is something else. It’s not a choice, not a response to some result, it is a constant. Joy is “the feeling we have from doing what we are fashioned to do,” no matter the outcome.

Personally, as an actor, I started enjoying my work and literally being happier when I stopped trying to make the daily labor a means to a certain end — I need this film to be a box office success, I need my performance to be acknowledged, I need the respect of my peers.

All reasonable aspirations but truth is, as soon as the WORK, the MAKING of the movie, the DOING of the deed became the reward in itself — I got more box-office, more accolades and respect than I’d ever had before. See, JOY is always in process, under construction — it’s in the constant approach, alive and well —in the DOING of what we are fashioned to do… and enJOYing doing it.

If happiness is what you’re after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy much of your time. Joy, though, is something else. It’s not a choice, not a response to some result, it is a constant. Joy is “the feeling we have from doing what we are fashioned to do,” no matter the outcome.

Meditation