For a new beginning we need a new perspective to take us forwards.
Our society has a mentality ingrained of work, hard work, and grind. To be someone you are generally defined by your work and the introductory question that is more often than not used is, “so what is it you do?” with a heavy expectation towards work as this identifies who you are in a meaningful societal way. Dependent on your job you have status or not. And to not be in work in many circles is not always highly considered.
Joy Economics as I have previously written about in other blog articles or in my book, is the way forwards for all societies to begin to truly prosper at all levels. It takes the current paradigm of materialism and consumerism and applying the current economic process towards that to a much more realised level. It is an expansion of this limited model, that has a proven outcome for societal failure, that may be seen by continual and cyclical economic depressions and crashes, or at a level where there is a continuous rise and fall of civilisations throughout human history. Autocratic systems widely adopted, mainly through vested interests of the few in power, create flawed systems, that do not really benefit the many and certainly do not provide true equality of opportunity for any sustained period of time for all citizens.
The average person, particularly the middle and working classes are put through a running mill in their lives, with few escaping and all limited in terms of truly aspiring and realising towards the most magnificent of dreams. Everything is tightly controlled to provide limited options that are supposed to meet expected aspirations. They go to school and are taught (or not really) how to work and are expected to get good grades, then into work, where you get a job, maybe for the aspirational you become a professional of some kind. A doctor, a vet, an engineer. For the more aspiring maybe they set up a business. You do all this hard work and save through the process, putting your money into established low yielding investments for a small pension where you can live the rest of your remaining days in comfort should you live much longer. It is safe and secure and the way things are done.
Unfortunately, most of current human society exist emotionally in low ranges of fear with anxiety and apathy being prevalent (as reported by Dr David Hawkins from the early 1990’s). Work by and large is not particularly inspiring and feeds a string of autocratic structures from the business structures to the societal structures that are prevalent across the planet.
The income obtained by the masses from their work has improved in terms of purchasing power, but is not enough to take people out of survival if stopped for much more than a month. The ability to feed and house a family is a constant constraint and without ongoing work or employment most will not be able to maintain a decent home or be able to feed themselves, before becoming wards of the state or assisted by charity if there are either of these 2 fallbacks where they live.
This adds to stress in life, unless you know how to choose your emotional state, which relatively few know how to do effectively. This is reflected by the most prominent reason for mortality in society, which are chronic stress related illnesses, such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and so on.
Enjoyment has been placed further than secondary down the line as something to be done, particularly at work.
Work for most is mundane, uninspiring to highly stressful.
To Self-Actualise is to create and realise one’s highest desires and intentions, at the emotional levels of peace, love and joy. The process of Joy Economics is a system designed to systematically enable this in society. Key to this are financial, business and governmental systems that enable Self-Actualisation to occur in peace and harmony for all concerned and the environment.
This requires an upgrade to the current business model. Business is as it was designed to be, is to meet the desires of markets. The upgrade is to realise all desires, provided it is in peace harmony with all and the environment towards bringing joy to all and with actions that would be considered loving actions to all concerned.
From this perspective one can navigate around what desires to pursue, both as the business providing and consumer desiring. This is key to building a stable economy and resultant society. If you were to take the word “evolution” and apply the definition found in the field of Quantum Physics towards systems, then evolution is the creation of ever increasing complexity for a system. This will only last if the foundations are solid, which they are evidently not for our current economic system and sets of societies that utilise this.
What if, instead of going to work you went to enjoy?
Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, a book on becoming rich highlighted four categories towards what we do in society. They are:
To be an employee
To be a consultant or expert
To be a business owner
To be an investor
Robert asks his readers to categorise themselves and points out that the majority are workers or employees and those with some aspirations becoming the consultants or experts. For the rich and mega rich, they are the business owners or investors respectively.
In my book, “The Tao of Self-Actualisation” I recommended that all people become all four of the categories for different aspects of ones life and for a Self-Actualising society a new set of definitions are required. This evolves the current model that Robert highlights, to:
An employee becomes a Creator of love, joy and peace.
A specialist becomes a Specialist in the creation of love, peace and or joy.
A Business Owner of peace, love and or joy-based business.
An Investor in peace, love and joy-based business.
The point of Joy Economics is to build a deliberately joyful society systematically. It becomes the responsibility of all in society to seek and create joyful interactions, and this includes through out the entire business process. Work truly becomes a place to enjoy. Much like our hobbies.
To do this all interactions from the thought conception must be targeted to bring a balanced amount of joy either ultimately or through the process and ultimately, which would be the ideal. Then the interactions that result must be considered loving actions to all concerned, including the environment.
If you consider business at its essence the process of creating and realising mutual exchanges. The the Self-Actualising approach must be mutual exchanges that bring joy and are loving in their delivery to all concerned. This creates the synergistic benefit desired from all trades, ultimately fulfilment in all ways.
Humans desire 3 things in life
A life with abundant happiness, an abundance of love and a life that is entirely fulfilled.
So go to Enjoy rather than simply work.
The benefits in raising the quality of your life are meaningful this way. Eking a meagre mundane existence is less than awe inspiring and certainly not a life that is fully realised. And the quality or how good your life was will be poor as the only true measurement of how good your life was is by the amount of happiness felt in it.