Is it happiness to affirm the current situation and aim for gradual progress?

• I used to think about whether it is happy to abandon progressivism in life.

  • I do think it is, but in reality, it seems difficult to do so in this capitalist society.
  • I don’t have much confidence that I can be happy by abandoning growth/improvement in everything and living in a state without money or human relationships.

• As a more realistic approach, I thought about whether the mindset of “Gradually Improve Without Overdoing It” could lead to happiness while affirming the current situation.

  • I’m writing it quite generally.

  • @blu3mo: I think it’s good to affirm the current situation, find happiness/enjoyment in your current life, and gradually improve it from there. That’s when I feel happy to some extent, while keeping in mind that “progress of some sort leads to a happier situation” (though with some doubt).

  • I assume that “becoming happier through some kind of progress” (with some doubt) is a premise.

• In other words, when you have a distant goal and try to reach it, it’s sad when things don’t go well and you can’t affirm the current situation.

  • Instead, it might be happier to find and affirm the happiness and goodness in the current situation, and then take actions to reach a state that can be seen as a little better from that baseline.
    • You can affirm the current situation and feel a sense of accomplishment in making small improvements.

• I want to express it in mathematical equations (I think about it quite a bit in my mind), but it’s just too much trouble, so I’ll do it when I feel like it.

• As a concrete example, I think about how to approach human relationships in 632a765f79e11300006abb45.

  • As a premise, I think having a moderate number of human relationships is enjoyable.
  • However, when I see people with many friends or in relationships, I can’t affirm the current situation and become sad because I also want to be like that.
  • Instead, I think it would be better for mental stability to find happiness in the current relationships and gradually build better relationships through small actions.
    • 632a765f79e11300006abb45

    • I feel like I want to build up small improvements that can realistically be achieved.

    • Ex: Actively participate in social events, invite people to have dinner, talk to acquaintances I come across, etc.

    • Achieving these improvement challenges increases self-affirmation, so it’s good.

• The same can be said for academic pursuits.

  • It makes me anxious to think about getting an A+.
  • If I think in terms of growth from the current situation, it becomes easier.

• Probably, if you don’t have this mindset at the macro level (life, career, etc.), it seems unlikely that you can have this way of thinking at the micro level (chemistry grades, etc.).

  • For example, if you want to “get into the top graduate school in the United States” in your career, you need to get a good GPA, so it becomes “I want to get an A in chemistry exams.”
    • vice versa

• I feel like what lnlog is saying about the “Achievement Unlock Mindset” is similar.

  • The name is easy to understand and good.

• When people say “the competitive society is tough,” the difficulty of striving for goal achievement seems to be a major cause of that.

  • But there may be other factors that make it tough.

• The idea of “how things should be” (or “how I want them to be”) often comes from external societal norms and such, but it’s unclear if achieving that will bring happiness.

  • It’s like Everyone Has Their Own Hell & Knowing What is Enough.

• This can be generalized further.

• Counterclaim:

  • Assuming that “happiness can be obtained through progress” is true on some axis.
  • In that case, setting goals creates pressure to progress and enables greater progress.
    • So, instead of consciously aiming for gradual progress, one should set goals.
  • That’s true (blu3mo).
    • Well, it’s all about balance.