Procrastadabbler

After I wrote yesterday’s post, I happened to pick up an article in Newsweek about “being happy.” The article discusses the empirical work that is being done on why some people are happy and others not. The cited researcher claims that about 40 percent of one’s tendency toward happiness is genetic. 10 percent is circumstantial – that is, what is going on in our lives at a particular moment. She argues that the other 50% is controllable through the cognitive work we do. Then she points to research in positive psychology and that there are actually “exercises” that you can do to affect your sense of happiness.

I actually participated in a study run by the UPenn Positive Psychology program. It was a year long program where I was randomly assigned to a particular protocol for thinking about occurances in my day. I did not keep up the protocol because it was cumbersome. It was a multistep procedure for thinking through events of the day and using the events to create positive action. Great idea, I thought, but the procedure just didn’t fit me. Other recommendations include things like gratitude journals. Another recommendation was telling yourself to “just stop” when you find yourself perseverating about an event or to allow yourself 30 minutes to brood about the event – tomorrow.

After reading that, I told myself to stop obsessing over the student comment and that I would allow myself to think about it on my drive to my field site the next day. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I forgot about it. The idea keeps popping up now and then, but I slap it down. It’s unproductive.

And I guess that’s the message for the day. Regardless of what strategy works for me, the end result has to be that I use whatever happens productively.

Now, what’s really humorous is that in class we’re thinking about research paradigms. My work is qualitative in nature. I’m a bit of a postmodernist. But I do find value in quantiative work. The positive psychology is an example. The study I participated in is useful, yet limited. They didn’t ask why I didn’t use the strategy they assigned to me. But that wasn’t what they were looking for. That wasn’t their question. But I can pull from the research that which is useful to me, and then ask additional questions and go forward.

So that’s where I am right now. Pax.