30 Aug Happiness is…inside, not outside
by Joe Robinson for the Huffington Post
Lindsay, Snooki, Mel–we’re on a first-name basis with bad behavior these days, whether we want to be or not. Don’t bother looking away from that tabloid rack at the checkout counter. There is no escape. Even the president got into the act recently with a Snooki reference. We’re not so familiar, though, with a key trigger of the arrested development that brings us the melodramas of actress Lindsay Lohan, reality TV personality-of-the-hour Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, and actor Mel Gibson: the wrong yardstick for self-worth.
It turns out that something we seldom consider, why we do what we do, has a major impact on worth perception–and as a result, on our happiness, or misery, as in the aforementioned crew. Researchers say there are two basic motivations in life: intrinsic and extrinsic. If you’re intrinsically motivated, you’re driven by internal validation, which makes you less subject to the insecurities that come from basing your self-concept on what others think. People who are externally motivated are run by the outer optics we are led to believe are the only gauges of personal value–money, appearance, status, fame, work performance. It all comes down to being controlled by other people’s approval, or disapproval, in the case of Snooki.
A host of science tells us this is a splendid prescription for unhappiness…READ MORE HERE