Wisdom: Positive Mindset Index

The survey found that the very biggest determinant in a man’s PMI wasn’t a factor you might expect like relationships or health. It was work. “Job satisfaction,” the survey reported, “is by far the strongest predictor of positivity, being around three times higher than the next strongest predictor.”

‒ https://www.artofmanliness.com/career-wealth/career/you-are-kind-of-your-job/

This finding wasn’t about how much money men made in their jobs, but rather their sense of being valued at work and having an impact on their company’s success.

‒ https://www.artofmanliness.com/career-wealth/career/you-are-kind-of-your-job/

In a way, this finding cuts across a dogma we’ve been developing in the West for decades now: That what you do for work doesn’t define you. That the health, hobbies, and relationships you cultivate outside the office are more important. That you’re a human being, and not a human doing, damnit.

‒ https://www.artofmanliness.com/career-wealth/career/you-are-kind-of-your-job/

Men have an innate drive to be useful, to be effective, to provide value to their tribe.

We’ve tried to get away from the reality that men derive crucial satisfaction from their work, not because it’s stopped being true, but because that satisfaction has become harder and harder to come by.

That is, because it’s become increasingly difficult to secure satisfying employment, we’ve generated ex post facto reasoning about how such work isn’t actually so important. It’s akin to the sour grapes phenomenon: “I can’t have this thing, but who cares? I don’t need it. It’s not so great, anyway.”

‒ https://www.artofmanliness.com/career-wealth/career/you-are-kind-of-your-job/

It also seems necessary to recognize that such factors [like health, hobbies, and relationships] can’t entirely make up for being unhappy in your job — a role you’re going to spend a third of your life pursuing. Your work is going to have an outsized impact on how you feel about everything else.

Believing that it doesn’t matter how you spend your 9-5 — that you can put in your stultifying bit while on the clock and then make up for it in your off hours — can lead to prematurely resigning yourself to doing work you dislike. But while it is indisputably far harder to get a satisfying job these days, not being content with the so-so, and attempting to find yourself a fulfilling vocation, may be one of the most worthwhile efforts you ever make.

‒ https://www.artofmanliness.com/career-wealth/career/you-are-kind-of-your-job/

So I honed this down into nine rules that I thought would have the biggest impact and then decided to test them out. Like what happens if I have 150 people try out these nine rules for nine weeks? And so I measured the people at the beginning in various ways. I had them each week learn a new rule, answer questions about how they plan to implement it in their lives. A week later, followed up to see how it went, kept measuring people as we did this over and over again for nine weeks, nine rules. And I was happy to find that the end of the study people’s time satisfaction had improved to a high degree. So I really do think that good habits do translate into being happier about our lives.

‒ Laura Vanderkam, https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/podcast-843-7-ways-to-achieve-tranquility-by-tuesday/