3171: Eudaemonia by Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle on Personal Development & Self-Improvement

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[00:00:59] It's a minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily episode 3171,

[00:01:04] Unimonia by Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com and I'm Justin Molyke your narrator and a bit under the weather

[00:01:11] So I'm doing a flashback to an episode from four years ago

[00:01:16] When I wasn't under the weather in the heart of the pandemic funny enough

[00:01:21] So with that here's a little flashback episode as we optimize your life

[00:01:30] Unimonia by Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com

[00:01:34] Most decisions we make can be traced back to our desire to be happy

[00:01:39] But happiness is a fuzzy term and is often incorrectly I would argue

[00:01:44] conflated with a collection of other terms

[00:01:46] fulfillment, pleasure, contentment and satisfaction among them

[00:01:51] Homing in on this difference is important though as it allows us to better refine our actions so that we actually move in the

[00:01:56] direction we think we're moving so that we truly pursue what we tell ourselves we're pursuing

[00:02:02] There's a philosophical concept Unimonia that is particularly useful for the purposes of discussion

[00:02:08] Unimonia can be seen as a metric by which one can measure the relative goodness or positivity of their life

[00:02:15] It's often positioned as a counterpoint to hedonism though arguably the two overlap in some important ways and are not entirely oppositional

[00:02:23] Hedonism states in essence that pleasure and happiness are the main purpose of any person's life

[00:02:29] And therefore anything that you might do to achieve a greater level of pleasure is fair game

[00:02:34] That's the correct path to take

[00:02:36] There are of course downsides to this perspective

[00:02:39] Especially when it comes to our relationships with others and our functionality within our societies

[00:02:44] Unimonia in contrast focuses less on pleasure related happiness and more on a broad sense of wellness

[00:02:51] What that means in practice is rather than dedicating oneself to the reckless pursuit of pleasurable sensations and bursts of dopamine

[00:02:58] It's more ideal to live a virtuous life

[00:03:00] To develop into an increasingly refined version of oneself and to enjoy the process of self honing that leads to growth

[00:03:07] There are many sub perspectives that have splintered from this main concept

[00:03:11] The Stoics believed that the virtue component of Unimonia is itself the beginning and end of fulfillment potential

[00:03:18] And therefore any external sources of pleasure should be avoided

[00:03:22] While the Aristotle in view allows for a sense of fulfillment and personal development that includes one's ability to appreciate art

[00:03:29] Beauty nature etc. But the contrast with hedonism is the greater contrast

[00:03:34] This is about gratification derived from personal growth and refinement

[00:03:38] Not transient happiness from any activity that happens to trigger biological surges in pleasure chemicals

[00:03:44] This term has proved immensely useful for me in describing why I live the way I live to people who find my lifestyle framework

[00:03:52] Puzzling. Why do you spend so much of your free time working?

[00:03:55] They asked me isn't that unhealthy never stepping away from your job never taking a vacation

[00:04:00] The truth of the matter though is that I absolutely love the work

[00:04:04] I do if I never made a cent from writing

[00:04:06] I'd still be writing if I wasn't able to make a part-time career out of podcasting

[00:04:11] I'd make my career elsewhere and spend my off hours making my podcasts

[00:04:16] Further my work and how I approach it has less to do with particulars of the tasks

[00:04:20] I perform the writing of words the recording of audio and more to do with what those tasks do for me

[00:04:26] It's about the growth I experienced by going through these motions and

[00:04:30] intellectually engaging with the associated habits and rituals and the ability to graze widely on different fields of inquiry of realms of exploration

[00:04:38] The challenges that come tandem with such work are frictions that help me stand myself into shape

[00:04:43] The ever-present concern that I'll mess it all up reveal myself as a fraud

[00:04:48] succumb to the pressures of working for myself that stresses my mind muscles helping them grow stronger and more resilient

[00:04:55] There's a satisfaction in difficult work that bears valuable fruit. There's fulfillment in engaging with that work

[00:05:01] There are bursts of pleasure chemicals certainly

[00:05:04] But most of the joy derived from such effort is unrelated to the joy

[00:05:07] Experienced when biting into a delicious piece of fruit or having with an attractive partner

[00:05:12] It's a eudaemonia and happiness not hedonistic happiness

[00:05:17] Importantly as I mentioned there are crossovers between the two neither type of happiness is worthless

[00:05:22] But it's possible for instance to take a certain hedonistic joy in viewing a beautiful piece of artwork while also

[00:05:28] Experiencing eudaemonia and growth from that exposure learning more about the medium appreciating the skill that went into creating it

[00:05:35] Understanding more about the craft through this new exposure to it and becoming a more well-rounded person who has seen and experienced more things

[00:05:43] We live in a world that in many ways on many levels and for many reasons

[00:05:48] More casually recognizes and celebrates hedonistic pleasures

[00:05:52] This is partly because they're easier to provide to mass produce

[00:05:55] But also because they smoothly align with our means of distributing such pleasures

[00:06:00] Hedonistic joy is something you can purchase while eudaemonia fulfillment is something you generally have to accomplish

[00:06:07] It's trickier to passively order online in the few hours you have available after leaving the office and before going to bed

[00:06:13] There's nothing inherently wrong with pleasure for the sake of pleasure

[00:06:16] But the benefits seem to be longer lasting and the sense of fulfillment seems to be deeper seated

[00:06:22] When you've spent at least a portion of your time and energy working on your internal happiness production machinery

[00:06:28] Doing so is no guarantee that you'll feel wonderful all day every day

[00:06:31] But it does make it more likely that you'll control a steady drip of fulfillment

[00:06:35] Rather than relying on the hedonic treadmill of consumption one-off experiential highs and thoughtless thrill seeking

[00:06:43] You just listen to the post titled eudaemonia by Colin Wright of exile lifestyle comm

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[00:07:14] Thank you to Colin

[00:07:15] I thought this was a super interesting post from him covering a pretty wide area from personal development to minimalism

[00:07:21] You can see hedonism in our consumption of tangible goods always looking for that high when checking out at the grocery store

[00:07:27] Or more likely nowadays with us staying at home clicking buy now

[00:07:32] But this other type of happiness that he talks about eudaemonia goes a lot further

[00:07:36] One of my favorite questions is if you won the lottery, what would you do with your life?

[00:07:41] Maybe in the first week or first month even year you would do a lot of traveling for instance

[00:07:46] That's often the first response, but okay. What about after that?

[00:07:50] Do you imagine you just travel for the rest of your life?

[00:07:53] Chances are that the trip is seen as a vacation and that's what you would do in the short term

[00:07:58] But what about long term or if you could retire right now, would you and what would you do?

[00:08:03] I think those are important questions

[00:08:05] We should ask frequently at all ages because like Colin

[00:08:08] We can find things to do that almost feel like we're retired

[00:08:11] You can call it semi-retired even

[00:08:13] And if i'm being honest, that's a bit how I feel because if I had enough money where I didn't need to work a day in my life

[00:08:19] I would not stop doing this podcast

[00:08:21] What i'm doing right now is what I want to be doing and while i'm grateful for that and can't expect

[00:08:26] Everyone to find work where they feel like that

[00:08:28] There are ways to get closer and asking these types of questions is a great place to start

[00:08:33] There are ways to get closer and asking these types of questions is a great place to start

[00:08:38] By the way, when I come up with a workbook to do alongside this podcast

[00:08:41] I'll definitely include that exercise in there

[00:08:43] So if you're interested in a workbook like that, make sure you're on my weekly newsletter email list

[00:08:48] That's free at oldpodcast.com if you're on there, you'll hear more about that for sure

[00:08:53] But that'll do it for today. Thank you for being here and listening every day and i'll be back tomorrow as usual

[00:08:58] Where your optimal life awaits?