The flow model: When happiness is hard to refute – Clark Pampanga Philippines
By REYLITO A.H. ELBO
FOR some reason, humans are compulsively negative or incurably pessimistic. One good example of pessimism can be found in among newspaper columnists who must overly extend our pessimism to doubt the sincerity of our fellow pessimists.
Why is this so? According to former CIA analyst Morgan Jones, ābeing negative and contrary is such a universal human trait that itās downright extraordinary when a new idea meets with instant approval.ā Simply put, if youāre not negative, youāre abnormal.
In his book āThe Thinkerās Tool Kitā (1998) Jones says ācriticizing comes to us naturally . . . when we evaluate the merits of something, especially when something is new or unconventional.ā
Jones says to overcome pessimism we only have to force ourselves to identify first the positive. Only then are we allowed to indulge joyously in negatives. This is the āsandwich approachā in human resources where you must act like a professional manager who knows how to gently kick a worker out of his job.
āTony, I like you as a person. Youāre a wonderful fellow and a hardworking guy who helped brought this company where it is today.
Unfortunately, I hate to tell you that this will be your last day because credible witnesses can prove that you savoured the bossā Starbucksā¢ coffee and refilling it with CafĆ© Puroā¢ during an errand,ā says one HR manager.
Then you as the āwonderful fellowā without having the chance to express your grief will have no choice but to leave the HR managerās room where you sneakily pick up a newspaper to search for some job wanted ads even if they offer only a five-month cycle.
And then youāll find these job ads near an equally depressing news story with screaming headlines like āFacebook addiction linked to leukaemiaā and āofficials earn millions for live-out prisoners.ā
As I wrote this piece Sunday morning, the story that punched me right
in the eyeballs was headlined: āPassive smokersā lives shorter, says MMDA,ā although Iām not sure whether I read it right because of too much smoke inside the garden as my wife was cooking grilled bangus (milkfish) with lots of tomatoes, ginger, onions and other spices favored by Arabian states.
But Iām sure you read about it. Researchers did a study showing that smokers live an average of ten years less than non-smokers. What is ignored in similar studies is the fact that smokers are carelessly messy with their paper work.
This is very alarming to me because President Noynoy Aquino is also a smoker, which could raise a troublesome constitutional issue because if he signs the Reproductive Health bill into law he will surely pull his nicotine hands to mess up the law with tar.
āThis doesnāt look like a signature.ā I can imagine the findings of a handwriting expert. āIt looks like somebody smeared a stick carbon figure on the RH Law.ā This alone could be an issue the Catholic Church would bring before the Supreme Court.
Of course, Iām joking. The point that I would like to make here is that smokers, including President Aquino, deserve to be happy. That brings us to the questionāwhat makes us happy outside of smoking cigarettes?
The best answer can be found in the Flow Model of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who after interviewing over a thousand people about what made them happy discovered five common denominators.
Csikszentmihalyi who has a notoriously difficult-to-spell-and-pronounce name says that happiness or āflowā occurs when people are intensely focused on an activity of our own choosing, such work is neither under-challenging (bore-out) nor over-challenging (burn-out), with a clear objective, and one that receives immediate feedback.
But I beg to disagree. Why is my wife happy despite the fact that she doesnāt fall in any one of those five factors? Isnāt that silly?
What Iām getting at is that, for most of our close to 30 years of marriage, Bonnie just didnāt have the time to complain about family life like Sharon Stone, knowing that her female contemporaries way back to their corporate years are still absurdly single even up to this very minute when I checked their Facebook accounts.
Maybe the reason for Bonnie is my good sense of stability, companionship, and responsibility for us maintaining an ideal household. Now, Iām afraid she would want to double her happiness by getting a Labrador retriever.
Rey Elbo is an aspiring humour columnist with a serious outlook in human resources and total quality management consulting. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or follow him on Facebook and Twitter for his random management thoughts.
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/business/the-flow-model-when-happiness-is-hard-to-refute/
Some hotels and resorts offer free WIFI Internet connection to guests. This includes beach resort of Clearwater which also offers free Internet connection in the room as well as in the outdoor areas even near the beach and by the lake.
Fine dining restaurants like Yats Restaurants and Wine Bar also offers good internet connection to their guests. Highly recommended bar, pub and nightlife spot The London Pub located inside Mimosa also offers good internet connection to guests.
The London Pub is a classic English Gastropub frequented by local expats and business community. It serves up good food, plenty of excellent vintage wine by the glass and a good selection of Cuban cigars. The ambience is old English, dark wood, comfortable and relaxed.
Frequent travelers and visitors staying in Angeles City Pampanga Clark Philippines look for restaurants, coffee shops, bars, pubs, hotels and resorts in Clark that serve high quality Nespresso coffee to guests. Here are some of the highly recommended places in Clark that offer good gourmet Nespresso coffee.
This web site contains articles and information that will be helpful to visitors, residents and tourists traveling out of town from Manila on a short getaway to Subic, Angeles City, Pampanga and Clark Philippines. There are several web sites that contain information that might also be pertinent to what is happening in North Luzon.
For assistance with organizing and planning weddings and garden receptions, log on to http://www.PhilippinesWeddingVenue.com
For assistance with lodgings, accommodations, hotels and resorts near Manila in Subic, Pampanga, Angels City and Clark Philippines log on to http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com
While in Clark, one might as well add to the itinerary a visit to the famous Clark Wine Center, the largest wine shop in Philippines which offers over 2000 selections of fine vintage wine from all wine regions, vintages spanning over 50 years covering all price ranges.
http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com
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