I think there’s a misunderstanding of well-being because there are two forms of well-being.
False Wellness
First, let’s start with a chimera…
This “well-being” is the one we consume every day. It is easily accessible, within reach of a click, and requires little effort to obtain. It is most often served to us on smartphone screens or in the form of fatty meals or sugary drinks. It is called “dopamine wellness”. I put quotation marks on it because it does nothing for our health or our spirit. It degrades us and does not allow us to recharge our batteries. It is impossible not to indulge in it every day. In small doses, it is harmless and as they say, perfection is not of this world.
Easy Wellness
It’s the one everyone thinks of: that yoga session, that trip to the mountains, that spa session, that short nap before going back to work or that lie-in as a reward for a hard week. This kind of wellness is already more difficult because it requires to organize oneself and most of the time to open one’s wallet.
Sustainable Well-Being
This one is excessively hard, it is the fruit of a mass of efforts provided most often over a very long time. It can materialize like the serenity of the champion after having received the Grail which is symbolized by a cup or a medal. That said, sustainable well-being does not usually take a concrete form. It is simply the result of a deep inner transformation. By putting in an enormous amount of work directed toward a single goal, the person has succeeded in changing the cells of their body and the way their brain is wired. Of course, this takes time and that’s why few people manage to be in a permanent state of well-being. This state would correspond to what we can call the level of mastery described in the book “Mastery” by Robert Greene. This is the point at which our unconscious is so steeped in the thing we are doing that we act on intuition. Mastery in one area gives us such satisfaction that it has a beneficial effect on other aspects of our lives, including our well-being, which is intimately linked to our self-esteem and our sense of contribution (to a community or to society in general).
What Are The Ingredients For Achieving Mastery?
First, according to Robert Greene, there is an observation phase during which one passively assimilates the elements of the field one wishes to master. This phase may include talking to the people who already make up that professional scene. The central element of mastery is deliberate practice, that is, a considerable amount of work directed toward a single goal. Some will refer to this as the 10,000 hour rule, others will refer to it as the 10,000 trial and error rule. In order for it to take place in the best possible conditions, it must be done under the supervision of a qualified person, even an expert in the field in question. Finally, in order to achieve mastery, one must surpass the master, which implies going beyond the limits that have been set for us. This is of course only possible when one has assimilated all the basics necessary to conduct the job in question.
Here is a list of examples of people who have achieved a state of lasting well-being through mastery and the means by which they did so:
– Buddha through meditation
– Bach through music composition
– Marie Curie through scientific experimentation
– Mahatama Gandhi through political action and civil disobedience
– Zinedine Zidane through soccer
[…]
