The Recipe For Happiness

When Judy Garland was filming the scene in which she has to slap the Cowardly Lion, in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ she couldn’t stop giggling.  Which wasn’t a lot of fun for the Actor playing the Lion.  So to motivate Judy, the Director took her aside and slapped her.  They shot the scene perfectly on the next take.

That anecdote kind of sums up the difference between observing something happening to someone else and really feeling their pain.  There are many people who are greatly useful to the world who we might appreciate, yet do not fully understand enough to be able to use their skills as a bridge to developing our own abilities.

I believe that to be whole as a person and to function happily in the world we need to be capable of four basic skills.  One will be our most natural and strongest suit.  That will be the skill we start and lead with, but we still need the flexibility to occasionally branch out into the other areas.  These skills relate to the four basic Myers Briggs personality groupings.  Now if we are observant of others who function best in a differing personality style, we can pick up some of their strengths easier.

These four types can be illustrated by the characters in The Wizard of Oz who were each seeking what they already had, but didn’t realise.

• The Lion was seeking courage.
• Dorothy was seeking home.
• The Tin Man was seeking a heart.
• The Scarecrow was seeking a brain.

The Four Personality Types

Each of us is a unique individual.  We are unique because no-one has the exact same combination of traits, interests, experiences and outlooks.  However there are many commonalities among us.

• We share beliefs, for instance, 2.5 billion of the world’s population are Christian.
• We share gender with half the population.
• We share generational and cultural history with a large number of people.
• We share personality traits, such as Introversion/Extroversion.
• We share interests, hobbies and sports.

So it is possible to identify a group with a cluster of traits and shared outlooks and describe the broadest of their shared characteristics.  The unique individuality comes from the application of those characteristics within different contexts, mixed in with different interests and personal goals.

When we have an understanding of these broad groups we can see the different needs and paths to happiness that people will take.  I have spoken before of Jungian personality types, recently I have been studying these in more depth and the four basic attitudes match closely with the model I had of the recipe for happiness.  So today I would like to share with you, what I believe are the four foundations needed in the recipe for happiness.

The Adventurer

photo credit: Svenstorm

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

John F. Kennedy

Many have said that the secret to happiness is the ability to be present and live in the NOW.  The Artisan personality type is based firmly in the here and now.  As such they feel sensations to a greater extent and have greater ability to act and respond physically.  Therefore they are more likely than the other groups to be artistic, sporty, musical or excel in performing in some way.  They crave new sensations and experiences and so they rely on their boldness to go beyond the safe confines of the status quo in search of adventure.

It is the Artisan’s in the world that delight us, entertain us and are hugely fun to be around.  It is this group that find new techniques and experiences and territory.  I’ll bet that it was an Artisan that discovered fire and it was during the Presidency of a famous Artisan, John F Kennedy, that man first landed on the moon.

All of us need a certain degree of adventure and to explore and create new sensations and experiences.  The downside of too much pleasure seeking and adventure is that it leads us into scrapes and we have other concerns and responsibilities.  To always be adventuring will lead to an unbalanced and unstable life, which is why we need…

The Stabiliser

If you examine the history of our planet on any depth, the striking observation is how much change has happened in the last 200-300 years.  For 2.5 million years there was basically no change in population.  Then from about 700 BC to about 1650 AD there is a very slow, gradual increase.  This increases rapidly for about 200 years and suddenly explodes about a century ago.

Let’s put this in perspective, for every single person alive in 1900, there are now almost 14.

If you took Socrates, a Stonemason by trade, and placed him into the 1700′s, he’d notice a few differences, but essentially the basics of his work and life would be much the same.  Our world, however is completely unrecognisable to almost any other era.  Too much has changed, from where we choose to live, to work habits, technology, health care and so on.

I think this change has helped us as a Society.  We have solved most of our basic physical and health needs and now we have the ability to develop further our emotional and spiritual maturity.

For much of these changes, the credit must go to the Guardian personality type whose ability to organise and manage provides the platform for the other types to excel.  These are the pillars of the community.  The people who can organise and stabilise.  While the Artisan can explore and develop techniques that entertain and delight.  The Guardian is the one that can build and create the Theatre so that enjoyment can become part of the social fabric.  While the Artisan can entertain, the Idealist can dream of Utopian States and the Rational can find cures to diseases and invent solutions to social problems, it is the Guardian that can organise and distribute those technologies to bring stability.

We need to develop some of this aspect personally to develop some sense of order in our life.  We all need a personal code and a base that gives us a sense of security.  We all need the ability to organise ourselves and build some structure to our lives.

Maintaining and preserving order needs rules and regulations.  And wherever there are rules and regulations, there are those whose needs fall outside of the law.  The downtrodden, those who’s spirits have been broken.  And so we need…

The Harmoniser

photo credit: liberalmind1012

Gandhi, Princess Diana and Oprah Winfrey epitomise the Idealist personality type.  They care passionately that everyone is happy and getting along together.  They are concerned with personal and spiritual growth and find their purpose and meaning in learning more about themselves and sharing this insight with others.  These are the Counsellors, Clergy and Social Workers helping others to find themselves.

“It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.”

Hermann Hesse

Individually, we all need to love and feel loved.  We need to strive for an ideal and feel that we are growing.  To dream and imagine what could be.  To overcome conflict and connect at an ever deeper level with the people and the world around us.  However idealism without logic doesn’t get us anywhere.  Sometimes a dream isn’t grounded in enough reality to ever come to fruition, so we need the pragmatism of…

The Problem Solver

“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.”

Rene Descartes

It is the Rational personality type that has a passion for efficiency and the temperament to solve the more complex problems such as understanding relativity (Einstein) or evolution (Darwin) or popularising computers (Gates and Wozniak).

Being in the moment is great most of the time.  But in all of our lives we will face obstacles in our path.  And when we are stuck in the middle of a problem, it’s the least effective place to be.  We will all need the ability to zoom out of now, out of time in fact, and look at where the problem is, how it came about and how to best resolve it.

However being too disconnected from everyday life causes you to lose the thrill of life, which can only come from being present in the moment, for which we need the attitude of the Artisan to close our loop.