Which One Creates the Best Life: Your Past Self or Your Present Self?

There are two types of happiness that appeal to the human psyche. The first one is content happiness, which is experienced in the present moment, and hence I will call this type Present Happiness. This type of happiness emerges from enjoying yourself at your current task, such as eating food or participating in a hobby that you enjoy.

The second type of happiness is meaningful happiness, which can only be experienced by reflecting on your own memories, which I will call Past Happiness. Typically, in order to fill your brain with meaningful happiness, you must have encountered a tough journey towards achieving a goal. For instance, raising kids is a great example of meaningful happiness. Kids rarely bring any happiness to you in the moment (Present Happiness), but when they are grown up and you are old, you get to enjoy your memories and enter into a state of Past Happiness.

So, which one is better? In the end, Present Happiness is temporary while Past Happiness is permanent. Past Happiness is where we truly get satisfaction out of our lives. However, the trick is that a life composed of 100% Past Happiness and 0% Present Happiness is not ideal. This life would consist of committing only selfless acts for every waking moment of your life. Not a single person has the capacity to live this type of life.

However, if you still want to achieve Past Happiness, the correct way to do so is to sprinkle sporadic moments of Present Happiness into your life. For example, if you volunteer for an entire day of community service (which will contribute to your Past Happiness), you should indulge afterwards with a beer or a Chocolate Molten Cake. In this way, you will create memories of Past Happiness, but you will not be completely miserable through the process of creating these memories. Who truly enjoys the present moment of community service? It is the memories that we create which are the root cause of true Past Happiness. But, a dessert here or there helps create enough Present Happiness to get you through the adversity of the present in order to create the everlasting Past Happiness Memories.

In the end, Past Happiness is what has the greatest impact on us. A year from now, you probably won't remember your Chocolate Molten Cake. But there is a greater chance that you will remember your community service efforts. My recommendation is to try to be as selfless as possible, which will create memories of Past Happiness. But, whenever you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or drained of energy, take some time off, eat a dessert, go play basketball, or anything else that your present self would enjoy.

I am going to leave you with one final thought. Socially eating dinner or grabbing a drink together with friends is the a great combination of Present and Past Happiness. You create memories with your friends, establishing Past Happiness, but at the same time, you enjoy yourself and establish Present Happiness at the same time.

Please feel free to comment or reach out to me if you want to carry on a further conversation.