IFTTT

IFTTT is a website that lets you create chains of simple conditional statements. IFTTT stands for ‘If This Then That’. The website allows you to set a trigger, the if and the result that you want when the if happens, the that.

For example, if you want to follow tweets under a certain hashtag on twitter, you can set a condition on IFTTT to put together in an email all the tweets with that hashtag from the week and they arrive bundled neatly in your inbox every Sunday, or whichever day you choose. They have thousands of such conditions for you to set. It’s beautiful and seamless. Although, I haven’t used it much recently, I have always been fascinated by IFTTT.

Something this morning reminded me of them. And on exploring the principles of IFTTT, I realized that this is how we live our lives. We look at our life as a set of conditions: If this then that.

And the that in the equation is generally happiness.

If I get to my target weight then I’ll be happy.

If I make a certain amount of money then I’ll be happy.

If I find the perfect partner then I’ll be happy.

If I go on that vacation then I’ll be happy.

If my life was like that random person from Instagram who I don’t even know properly then I’ll be happy.

Are you seeing the trend?

Now I know that happiness is a complicated topic. And I can’t imagine covering all aspects of it in one musing- I don’t even know of all the aspects at this point and I don’t know if I ever will. But I had to say something about the ridiculousness of this futile activity that we do day in and day out.

The solution: I really don’t know. I don’t even know if there is one solution that will work for everyone at all times.

I do think that being aware of the IFTTT effect will help. There is no one condition that can fulfill our happiness quotient for a life time. Even if we get our if, we’re going to find something else that needs to happen for us to be happy. We are always going to chase the next thing.

One thing that has recently helped me stop (rather put on hold) this chasing is gratitude. Every evening my husband and I share with each other things that we are grateful for- could be something from the day or from our lives in general. It’s a new tradition for us, a week old.

Yesterday while we were at it, in the middle of the mall (the place where we go to buy things we don’t need in search of happiness), it dawned on me that just by taking a little time each day to be truly thankful was already making me a happier person.