You can measure work.  It’s measured by hours.  Some measure it by the amount of money that they make.  Whether you work hard or not, you can measure that amount much easier than you can Measure Pleasure or Happiness.

I was listening to a talk this week, and I’ve been thinking about this idea all week.  This person mentioned that if we could measure happiness or pleasure or specifically for his talk – value, then we can determine whether the amount of work is worth that value.  He called it a Hedon.  So what did I do, I Googled it.  What came up was that Hedon is some small town in England somewhere.  He was talking about the Hedonic value of something so that one unit of happiness or success or value is equal to one Hedon.  

If there was some measurement of pleasure or happiness that allowed us to compare the amount of work that we were putting in, that might helps us determine whether we were working in the right job or whether we had gone done the right path in our careers.

I’ve heard people tell me (and I think I might have even said it) to just determine whether it’s “worth it” or not.  It would be easy if we could determine how many Hedons it would take to make us happy.  I have many friends that work really hard, but the work that they do doesn’t amount to enough Hedons to make them happy.

At least that’s the logic right?  Find work that makes you happy.

What if there was happy that wasn’t determined by work?  What if there was a happiness that was inherent in just an idea?  What if you had all the Hedons that you ever needed to be happy and either you didn’t know that you had them or you didn’t know about it?  It would all be wasted Hedons.  It would all be wasted happiness.

Well, however you measure happiness or whether you think it comes from work or that we just somehow secretly have a stash of it, your perspective on how you measure happiness really shapes your identity.  It tells me whether you are a happy person or not.  It tells me whether you happiness is conditional or not.

We all have to determine how we measure happy.  You can still be happy even if you don’t measure it, but you’ll never know it’s worth if you d0n’t.