My last blog was "Life's Best Practices" and while I was thinking what should be my next one, I thought it will be good for me to define what can be the parameters of a "quality life" as far as I am concerned.
Before I proceed further, I would recommend a book "Thinking, Fast and Slow", by Daniel Kahneman (a nobel laureate) and from what I have read so far, which is very initial, preliminary reading, will have a profound impact on this particular blog.
Without getting too much into the details of the book, I would paraphrase an important concept of the book, which is "We are driven more by our impressions and feelings (Thinking Fast) that plays critical role in shaping our thoughts and intellect (Thinking Slow)". While I am not sure If I am well qualified to opine on this, but I do concur with the concept to a large extent. At a given point of time, what I am gauging is "Am I feeling good, Am I feeling bad, Am I happy, Am I sad, Do I like this, Do I not like this, Am I satisfied, What do I want, What do I not want, so on and so forth..." . Based on this, I would like to have a very simple definition of quality of life - "Am I feeling good or happy about life?". If the answer to this question is yes, then I am having a 'good' life.. if the answer to this question is no, then I am *not* having a 'good' life.
Before you jump on and try to judge this simplistic, minimalistic definition (which again is a function of 'Thinking Fast' system), I will acknowledge that every person is different and has different expectations, aspirations and definitions of a 'good' life and a term like 'quality of life' categorically demands a more holistic and deeper definition, but which I think is subjective for every individual and upto an them to define in a broader and narrower context.
Probably, a good indicator of your definition of what is a 'good' life is to think about the attributes of your good, potential spouse (if you are yet to marry) or go back to the time of defining the attributes of your good, potential spouse (if you are already married) [Note: This might not be applicable to people who found perfect love in their teens :-) , which some of my friends have, but still can be a good hint for defining a 'good' quality life]. For me, I was interested in looking at following parameters when I was doing my match making:
One thing I have learnt is that 'Life is like a tread mill, you just have to keep running....'.
From my perspective, I think I do have enough in my life to qualify for a 'good' quality of life, but I also think I have good, strong reasons to still believe that I do not have enough, to call my life as 'good'/'happy' life. What I realise is, life has thrown so much at me that I understand, rather know, that life is quite uncertain (which i don't know is good or bad).
Well, I can go on writing for a little longer, but I will like to keep the post short enough and end it with saying "While the life is definitely uncertain and we are quite ignorant as well, we still have to go about living it by planning/strategising and experiencing it."
(Just to keep you interested in the book 'Thinking, Fast and slow', it mentions something about an 'experiencing self' and 'remembering self' and how they play a part in our lives :-) .... )
Before I proceed further, I would recommend a book "Thinking, Fast and Slow", by Daniel Kahneman (a nobel laureate) and from what I have read so far, which is very initial, preliminary reading, will have a profound impact on this particular blog.
Without getting too much into the details of the book, I would paraphrase an important concept of the book, which is "We are driven more by our impressions and feelings (Thinking Fast) that plays critical role in shaping our thoughts and intellect (Thinking Slow)". While I am not sure If I am well qualified to opine on this, but I do concur with the concept to a large extent. At a given point of time, what I am gauging is "Am I feeling good, Am I feeling bad, Am I happy, Am I sad, Do I like this, Do I not like this, Am I satisfied, What do I want, What do I not want, so on and so forth..." . Based on this, I would like to have a very simple definition of quality of life - "Am I feeling good or happy about life?". If the answer to this question is yes, then I am having a 'good' life.. if the answer to this question is no, then I am *not* having a 'good' life.
Before you jump on and try to judge this simplistic, minimalistic definition (which again is a function of 'Thinking Fast' system), I will acknowledge that every person is different and has different expectations, aspirations and definitions of a 'good' life and a term like 'quality of life' categorically demands a more holistic and deeper definition, but which I think is subjective for every individual and upto an them to define in a broader and narrower context.
Probably, a good indicator of your definition of what is a 'good' life is to think about the attributes of your good, potential spouse (if you are yet to marry) or go back to the time of defining the attributes of your good, potential spouse (if you are already married) [Note: This might not be applicable to people who found perfect love in their teens :-) , which some of my friends have, but still can be a good hint for defining a 'good' quality life]. For me, I was interested in looking at following parameters when I was doing my match making:
- Education
- Profession
- Personality
- Family background (read religion, caste, financial status, upbringing, etc)
- Potential
- Behavioural compatibility
One thing I have learnt is that 'Life is like a tread mill, you just have to keep running....'.
From my perspective, I think I do have enough in my life to qualify for a 'good' quality of life, but I also think I have good, strong reasons to still believe that I do not have enough, to call my life as 'good'/'happy' life. What I realise is, life has thrown so much at me that I understand, rather know, that life is quite uncertain (which i don't know is good or bad).
Well, I can go on writing for a little longer, but I will like to keep the post short enough and end it with saying "While the life is definitely uncertain and we are quite ignorant as well, we still have to go about living it by planning/strategising and experiencing it."
(Just to keep you interested in the book 'Thinking, Fast and slow', it mentions something about an 'experiencing self' and 'remembering self' and how they play a part in our lives :-) .... )
