From a social / emotional / spiritual/ humanistic perspective, this is what I see in the "productivity" and "wellness" spaces.
"Ahh, if only I hyperoptimize all aspects of my existence, then I will achieve inner peace. I just need to be more efficient with my time and goals. Just one more meditation. One more gratitude exercise. If only I could be consistent with my habits, then I would be happy."
I've come to see these things as a hindrance to true emotional processing, which is what I think many of us actually need. Or at least it's what I need - maybe I'm just projecting onto everyone else.
Some of us are trying to optimize for things other than happiness. An occasional bit of happiness can be a nice side effect of certain types of optimization but happiness isn't a reasonable goal to focus on by itself.
Happiness is a valid goal. If one perceives it’s not reasonable to expect it, then you may arrive at this conclusion. But imo that’s because we short-circuit happiness to sources of pleasure that we see aren’t that reliable.
Hell, even this settling for happiness as a side-product is a result of the judgement that this is the best we can do regarding the goal of happiness.
"Ahh, if only I hyperoptimize all aspects of my existence, then I will achieve inner peace. I just need to be more efficient with my time and goals. Just one more meditation. One more gratitude exercise. If only I could be consistent with my habits, then I would be happy."
I've come to see these things as a hindrance to true emotional processing, which is what I think many of us actually need. Or at least it's what I need - maybe I'm just projecting onto everyone else.