Causes of Human Behaviour

• So far, I seem to be able to explain, to my own satisfaction, the causes of human behaviour in the above stated three categories (i.e., pain, pleasure and meaningfulness).
• We consciously or subconsciously act to satisfy the primal needs of avoiding/minimizing pain (e.g., physical/emotional pain (e.g., the discomfort of changing a habit)), seeking pleasure (life enhancing or damaging), or achieving a meaningful goal (e.g., minimizing environmental impact).
• Our behaviour can be attributed to any one or a combination of the above stated three causes.

Hypothesis 1: The quality of one's living is optimized if one can maximize one's pleasure and meaningfulness of one's existence while minimizing one's pain at the same time (the shaded area).

"To lead a happy life, we need to experience the combination of both meaning and pleasure. For example, if I find my work meaningful but not pleasurable, I will ultimately burn out; if I find what I do pleasurable but it has little meaning for me, I will quickly lose interest." [Tal Ben-Shahar]


Hypothesis 2: Though pleasure and meaningfulness can co-exist independently, one's pleasure of being, can be significantly heightened if one can purposefully heighten the sense of meaningfulness.


Conclusion: If the above hypotheses are true, we can then optimize the quality of our living in this very moment by simply raising the perceived meaningfulness of the moment (hence a good reason to be mindful of the moment :)). The perceived meaningfulness of the moment is maximized if the moment itself is an actualization of the very purpose of our being.


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