The Life, Work, and Happiness Theory
Designing a lifestyle where work isn’t invasive.
Your lifestyle is something you naturally fall into from your wants, needs, and obligations. The wants and needs are how you desire to spend your time, but the obligations are how you have to spend your time.
This becomes the balancing act of happiness—our hobbies, relationships, and pleasure on one side; work and responsibilities on the other.
But when our work (obligations) stop being a part of our lifestyle and instead start dictating our lifestyle, we lose a crucial aspect of happiness — perceived control.
People don’t hate work or their lifestyles; they hate not feeling in control. Emerging studies suggest lifelong happiness is directly linked to feeling in control of one’s life.
And that feeling of not having sway over your destiny seems to transcend country, culture, and socio-economic status. People’s perceived sense of “enough money” (perceived income adequacy) had a more significant effect on happiness than what they actually earned.
