Recently I was in a discussion with a friend who’s working on what to do next in life. I encouraged him to make a list of all the things that makes him happy and work towards a job and social environment that helps satisfy those things.
It occurred to me that making such a list would be useful to me as well. Accordingly, these things make me happy:
- Holding someone
- Being held by someone
- Solving complex problems
- Optimizing systems
- Doing things for people
- Laughing/joking with friends
- Achieving new physical PRs / competing with myself
- My level of physical fitness
- Trying new things even when I don’t want to / pushing my own boundaries
- Learning new things
- Traveling / seeing new things
- Being creative / making things with my hands
- Reading books that make me think
- Having cute guys smile at me or pay me a compliment
- Developing a level of friendship with someone such that both of us are free to be ourselves without pretense
- Simple company of close friends
I’m very fortunate that my job satisfies some of these (hint: it’s not the first two). My current social circle satisfies several of the others. Some on the list I need to work harder at achieving as they don’t happen near enough.
What makes you happy?