Always be creating

If you want to be satisfied, produce something.

A satisfying life is a productive life. A life of consumption is often the opposite, strangely deflating and even exhausting despite being comprised of things we ostensibly desire.

We often misunderstand this. Our purpose is not to pursue happiness but to engage in purposeful activity.

One of the most purposeful activities is to create or make something.

Production versus consumption

The Western world is based on a consumption model. The advertising industry exists to remind us of things we never knew existed but are somehow essential.

We consume like never before, but despite the promises of the advertisers we are less happy than in the past.

Production on the other hand has a different effect. It often leads to a sense of contentment mere consumption lacks.

This has been understood for centuries, yet few people produce anything or show any inclination to make things.

Many imagine production as work, and their own experience of work is of a thankless task. It is drudgery.

Producing as a means of being happy and relaxed may then seem counterintuitive. Compounding this is the widespread notion action is a negative because it requires effort. We must motivate ourselves to go to the gym, for instance.

Consequently, relaxation must mean doing less. It is an absence of work and the associated energy expenditure. Lounging about on a beach drinking cocktails is more relaxing than attending a gym.

The modern version of this old idea is the belief activity is bothersome. It is work, effort or toil. Passive ways of living are then easier and more calming, such as watching TV or scrolling through social media feeds. Downtime recharges our batteries so doing nothing becomes associated with leisure.

Challenging this opens a world of possibility, from exercise to creating great works of art.

Almost everything worthwhile takes effort, and yet that is where the magic is. That is where deep satisfaction is found.

The idle are rarely satisfied no matter how many movies they watch. Only the productive gain access to the deep well of satisfaction.

What production does

Production can be anything, from arts and crafts to movies.

Writing, music composition or songwriting, graphic design and other visual arts. Almost anything counts providing something is produced.

Constructing things engages the mind and often the body too. It requires mental discipline and can be physically demanding, helping condition our bodies for the trials of life.

Most production requires some planning or foresight. It results in some tangible item that exists outside of ourselves. It may even outlive us.

Producing anything worthwhile often involves an apprenticeship period to master basic skills. Only then does enough fluency emerge to enable us to focus on the thing being produced rather than the means to do it. Those new to a musical instrument are usually years away from producing anything such are the physical and mental demands.

This is one reason so few do it; the road to mastery is difficult to navigate.

But why would all this effort yield satisfaction when we can just switch on the TV or activate our phones?

The dynamic at work seems to be an investment model. You must invest something that later pays a dividend.

Investing nothing, as with mindless consumption, and there can be no real payback later despite what it may initially promise.

The investment comes in the form of effort, initially to master basic skills, then digging deep to create or craft something new that has never existed.

All this is difficult, it requires energy, focus, discipline, practice and even courage.

And yet most of us sense it is this front-loaded effort that unlocks the satisfaction. Being helicoptered to the top of the mountain gets you a great view, but walking or climbing there is better. The experience becomes a reward for the energy expended.

Our brains seem to work this way. Earning something is more fulfilling than just receiving it. There are no shortcuts to a satisfying life.

Hard times

When the dying are interviewed they often recount their happiest memories as the hardest times they survived.

This is a common observation, yet we ignore what it teaches us.

The appeal of passive consumption is how little it demands. We can loaf on the couch and binge-watch Netflix or scroll through hundreds of posts on a feed while eating dinner, ignoring our spouse.

But zero-demand activities pay no dividends. It is prior effort that brings the greatest reward.

That seems to be how we are wired, and we would be wise to pay attention.

The evidence is there. The world’s derelicts are not the hard workers, but the decadent and the lazy, those with undemanding lives. Their ease deprives them of purpose, killing their spirits and flattening their lives into nothingness.

Anecdotes of heirs to great fortunes dead in their twenties is just one famous example of a broader malaise in the human condition. Hardship builds character and may even be necessary in life. Its absence is damaging to us. Actively avoiding it to seek out passive entertainment is a kind of suicide of the spirit that increasing numbers are succumbing to.

We need purpose and structure to live a meaningful life, and that can’t be found slumped in front of the TV, lost in a stupor, being programmed by cultural vandals.

That’s why we never hear people reminisce about that year they spent lounging about doing absolutely nothing, lying in bed lost in social media feeds.

Our way is clear. Embrace the hardship and the effort, find something to do. Find something to make or create. Be productive.

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