Eudaimonia

I enjoy reading random articles (that is, any headline that grabs me from the msn homepage). Yes, I have that kind of time. One I stumbled on was “Five Things Happy People Do” (http://lifestyle.msn.com/mindbodyandsoul/personalgrowth/articleoprah.aspx?cp-documentid=6556551).

As usual, it seemed to center on the idea of spending more time doing things you love with people you love. What a shock. One hardly needs an article to tell them that. However, it did mention the concept of “eudaimonia” which I’d never heard before. The article claims it was a Greek concept that basically meant to strive “toward excellence based on one's unique talents and potential.” This seems a simplistic explanation of the concept, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Wikipedia explains the concept more as living in balance and virtue. Which explanation is more accurate? I have no idea, and I lost interest in further researching the subject (Greek philosophy is really not all that fascinating to me). But anyway…

The point being that the article claimed that one tenet of happiness is to spend time doing that which utilizes your talents. This seems to reconcile with what I intuitively understood, that I would be happier with a job that utilizes more of my talents (like being organized, self-motivated, consistent and having a good attention span for tedious tasks) and moves away from my weaknesses (namely, dealing with people… like obnoxious clients). I may have other talents and abilities, and I should spend time exercising those, but I don’t really need a drastic career change to be happier. Just one that lends itself better to those talents I have that actually apply to accounting.