I am just a floating, smiling face that has thought a lot about happiness and enjoyment. If you feel like you need to email me, you may do so at:
Earlier today the landscape of my day suddenly changed. What was once going to be a full work day with some more work at the end of it suddenly became very open. As I drove away from my workplace I noticed my ambient emotional state and how positively charged it was on account of this. Then I started thinking about this idea of ambient emotional state and how the “type” of day you’re having influences this. For me, waking up on a Mon-Fri workday has a very specific feeling to it; not only does this occur at an exact time of day which has its own sounds and lighting conditions, but I am already loaded with expectations on what type of day it’s going to be. The same thing happens on weekend days but when I wake up it is in different conditions with different expectations so that ambient state is different.
What was particularly interesting about what happened today, and what always happens in this kind of situation (half-days off from school as a child, rainy days, sudden plan changes, etc.) is just how positively charged I felt. Not that I don’t love my job, but knowing I suddenly had a day to do what I want made me feel really motivated and excited, and on a day that was not any different from any weekend day I’ve ever had! Something really powerful emerged from a mild emotional state brought on by a simple change in plans. This is what I’m referring to when I mention The Ambient Sense Of Opportunity.
I feel like there’s a really good internal challenge here. How can we generate that sense of opportunity on the type of heavily ritualized day we have most of the time? When I thought about how much lighting conditions had to do with this (here I am, driving my car around at 11am, which I NEVER do an account of my lifestyle – coupled with the realization that my day is free) I realized that shifting some aspects of your day around in arbitrary ways might be really energizing. Maybe we can get up a little earlier or later than we usually do. Maybe we can do the same thing with lunch. Maybe we can open or close the doors and windows when normally we wouldn’t. It doesn’t hurt that the seasons tend to shift our surroundings naturally. So let’s generate The Ambient Sense Of Opportunity simply by making some changes to our environment and aggressively reminding ourselves how interesting and varied our lives and work actually are. :)
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