Delight… What is a delight? By definition, delight is a high degree of gratification or pleasure, also known as joy. For me, delight means something more profound and simple. Delight is the moments of true absence of needs, which together evoke happiness. Delight is the present now. Delight is hugging my imaginary bear. Delight is meeting jubilant soul-friends. Delight in enjoying writing about delight. Delight is doing nothing for the first hour of your morning. Delight in talking with others about their delights. Delight is randomly greeting estrangers. Delight in nature. Sean is also a delight! BTW delight is also coming to Alaska and not getting scammed (this is a story for another time).
Delight is not a feeling but a way of living or a state of being. Being content and enough of your little moments, surrounding, and yourself is just delightful. Delightfulness should not be a goal but be part of oneself identity. Delight is a personality that permeates contagiously to the environment.
I believe that to reach delight, there should be a full acceptance of your being, which means being jubilant with your identity, value, purpose, origin, culture, and environment. Completely embrace your past and present and be excited about the future.
To reach delightfulness requires certain specific and practical mental models for the critical sections of life. I divided it into 3 parts: Past, present, and future. In terms of the past, self-love and embracement are essential. For the present, I love the concept of Wu Wei from Taoism. For future-oriented, I love the combo of Stoicism and knowing that everything is figural-able.
The practicality of all these concepts is daunting and confusing. Since these topics are extremely intangible and abstract, there is no quantifiable way to measure success. That’s why for soft skills and mindsets I measure by attitude and behaviors. It is measured by witnessing and not counting.
The state of delight could be continuous and prolonged, which I like to define as happiness. Happiness is the lifelong experience of delight. The more little moment of delights we collect the happier we are as human beings.
Happiness is a 21st-century hot topic because of the necessity to not only be able to survive by making money but the ability to have a purpose or meaning in life. Something that not only completes the duty of yourself but those around Family, neighbors, friends, human beings, living things, and the universe. It is more a conversation about the impact and legacy than the selfish ego. There is a shift from egocentrism to collectivism.
At the end of the day, we just want to live in a fulfilling and meaningful way. Knowing what truly matters to us and seeking to do more of that. In the future with the longevity technology we will have more time but does that mean more meaning. Not always… Kids that could live for longer than 120 years old have already been born so what? Well… I will leave this question for y’all to ponder!
