S2 Episode 008 Transcript

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0:00

Before we begin, we would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have been the original change makers and stewards of Australia for over 60,000 years.

Their profound wisdom, resilience and deep connection to country have fostered countless stories of survival, adaptation and transformation.

0:18

The knowledge held by these communities is an invaluable resource for understanding how to create positive change and build a more just and sustainable world.

Welcome back to Change Maker Q&A, everyone.

I am your host, Tiana Jay, founder of the Humanitarian Change Makers Network, and today we’re going to be answering a question that I love because it is a little bit philosophical.

0:42

This was a question that we were asked on YouTube, and it is a question about what does it mean to live a good life?

How can we determine what a good life looks like and make decisions about our life?

0:59

So this is a very big question and I’m going to be kind of addressing it, I think from the position that there are different cultural and societal and philosophical viewpoints about what is meant by a good life.

1:17

And I want to suggest some tools or a framework that I use to kind of determine if I am living a good life.

And a good life in this context, I think is one that is very relevant for social change makers.

1:39

A good life is 1 where we’re kind of, I guess, finding that perfect balance between living a life that feels good personally.

So we’re focused on our self development and personal growth.

We’re also focused on doing good and having an impact in the world.

1:59

And so it’s kind of like self development or personal growth meets social change.

And I want to begin by just prefacing this, by saying I really don’t think that we can talk about, I guess, what’s best for humanity or how to live a good life without really acknowledging that the pursuit of happiness is kind of one of the most fundamental aspects of the human experience.

2:33

And so are ethical questions.

And I think that what constitutes a good life should be one that kind of addresses both of these, which is why I personally kind of define a good life as being one in which we are feeling good and doing good, or being good and doing good.

2:58

And this concept of the good life goes all the way back to ancient Greek philosophers.

The most, I think, well known example would be Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia.

3:13

Eudaimonia is often translated as happiness or flourishing, but it’s meant in more than just like the fleeting sense of like joy or happiness.

And what Aristotle really sought to, I think, argue, was for this idea of a eudaemonic society in which we are all flourishing, we are all happy.

3:41

We are all like meeting the needs of our well-being while also contributing to the flourishing of others.

And it kind of recognises that the flourishing of everyone depends on the flourishing of individuals, and the flourishing of an individual is dependent on the flourishing of the collective.

4:04

Now the argument that Aristotle puts forward in what constitutes a good life is kind of made-up of a few key characteristics.

So the first of these is virtue.

4:21

Now, he was a virtue ethicist, like most philosophers of his time.

Virtue ethics is a little bit different to deontological or utilitarian ethics, which we explored in our episode about how we actually assess whether something is ethical.

4:41

They’re the kind of the two main competing frameworks, deontology and consequentialism or utilitarianism.

Virtue ethics is a little bit different in that we’re not assessing the actions or the outcomes we take, but morality and moral value lies in the pursuit of being a virtuous person.

5:06

So for Aristotle, this idea of eudaimonia was really closely tied to virtuous character traits and things like courage, justice, wisdom, temperance.

5:23

These were all kind of virtues that a eudaemonic individual or society required, and these were kind of like the virtues that you were meant to live your life in alignment with.

Aristotle also saw human beings as being rational beings.

5:40

So rationality is a key characteristic of Aristotle’s version of a good life, and individuals are expected to kind of use their reason in making ethical decisions and living in accordance with what he defined as their highest potential.

6:00

The fulfilment of human function is also another key characteristic.

So Aristotle believed that every individual being has a unique function or purpose in life.

And for humans this function is kind of shaped by our rationality and we can kind of achieve eudaimonia when we are living in a way that fully realises and expresses this human function.

6:31

Balance and moderation was also a key characteristic of the good life for Aristotle.

So there was kind of this importance of trying to find a balance between different extremes.

So if we look at some of these virtues, courage is a virtue that was encouraged.

6:53

But we could look at something like recklessness or cowardice.

Cowardice.

Cowardice as being the kind of opposites or the extremes of that virtue that should be avoided.

7:08

So it’s about finding that balance between the different extremes.

And eudaimonia is, like I mentioned, also not an individual endeavour.

It’s something that is closely connected to the social and ethical life of everyone.

7:25

So Aristotle believed that living in a just and harmonious community was essential for achieving eudaimonia.

So that was kind of the most, I guess, influential I would say, idea of what constitutes the good life in Western philosophy.

7:46

And we can look at other philosophical perspectives and what their take on the good life might be.

So if we’re going to take a utilitarian perspective, utilitarians are consequentialist and they want to maximise utility, utility here being well-being, happiness satisfaction.

8:07

So they would take the good life as being one that aligns with the principle of the greatest happiness.

So this idea that all of our actions should be judged by the ability they have to promote the greatest overall happiness or pleasure for the greatest number of people.

8:24

So we could contrast this then with a deontological approach which is more action focused.

We’re looking at the inherent rightness or wrongness of an action rather than the consequences of our actions, and it’s really strongly duty based.

So we would look at certain moral principles that we might set out very common in religious communities where religious doctrine kind of sets out particular principles or norms or values that our followers have a duty to abide by.

8:59

And these are kind of used to guide people in how they ought to live a good life.

So these are two different kind of approaches that we could consider.

My own personal perspective is that in terms of the deontology, verse, consequentialist or utilitarian debate, I think that truly ethical action or a truly good life is one that aligns with both.

9:30

We want a good life to be 1, where we are maximising the benefit that we have to others, whilst also abiding by particular principles that we think are kind of universal moral truths when it comes to what constitutes A eudaimonic society or human flourishing.

9:52

Of course, we live in a complex social world, and the reality is that we don’t necessarily have the means to make such rational, straightforward choices.

And so we are kind of forced to pick different approaches in different contexts.

10:09

So that’s the philosophical perspective of what it means to live a good life.

And there are also kind of different cultural or social approaches to what a good life looks like.

10:24

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10:40

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11:01

An example that I really like is if we looked at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Obviously the Aboriginal cultures that we have here are very diverse.

There are hundreds of distinct groups and languages, so there’s no kind of like uniform perspective on what a good life looks like.

11:23

But there are a lot of common elements that we can kind of see across Aboriginal cultures.

So a good life is one with a strong connection to the land.

Aboriginal cultures have a very deep spiritual and cultural connection to the land and the environment.

11:42

It is kind of like their source of identity and belonging and well-being in terms of the connection to and caring for country.

There’s kind of this perspective that people belong to the land, the land doesn’t belong to people.

11:59

And so a good life is 1 where people are stewards of the land.

They are engaging in conservation efforts and they’re kind of maintaining the natural, natural balance of ecosystems.

Another important element of a good life in Aboriginal cultures is this idea of cultural heritage and the preservation and continuation of cultural practices.

12:28

Stories, song lines, art, languages, these are all essential for a good life.

These are things that have been passed down from previous generations, for future generations.

They have been passed down for over 60,000 years and they’re a key element of what it means to live a good life.

12:48

Similarly, I think there is a strong connection with ancestors and a strong engagement in things like rituals and ceremonies as a way to kind of connect with the spiritual world as well as country.

13:08

Many Aboriginal cultures also place a lot of emphasis and importance on social equity, equality and justice.

I think this is something that has particularly emerged since colonisation, where Indigenous communities have been oppressed, they have been murdered, they have been greatly mistreated by settlers and as such there is a really strong importance of equality and justice in what it means to live a good life for Aboriginal people today.

13:50

I’m not sure, based on what I have read, whether this was what would have constituted a good life 10,000 years ago, previously 300 years ago.

I think that because of the the inherent world view that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people held, this idea of like justice was kind of embedded in that and equality or equity was kind of embedded within that.

14:21

There was no need to actively pursue these things.

Because if you were living in true alignment with the connection to country and the teaching and the wisdom and the knowledge that was passed down by ancestors, then you were already perpetuating notions of equality, equity, justice.

14:43

I think it’s only really been since colonisation that we’ve introduced all of these other, I guess, Western constructs and concepts and ways of living our life that has perpetuated inequality and injustice and inequity.

14:59

And it’s kind of a response to that, that these have become such important elements of a good life.

Again, I’m not an expert, that’s just my understanding from the learning that I’ve done.

And I guess with that, this idea of self determination is now also an important part of what constitutes a good life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

15:25

The ability to kind of have a say in one’s own life to make decisions for their community and have a voice on issues that affect Aboriginal communities is something that is now really highly valued.

And you know, it’s important to recognise that these elements aren’t universal to all Aboriginal cultures.

15:42

There is definitely a diversity of perspective and practices within different communities, and it’s the impact of colonisation and the kind of ongoing and responses to these challenges that have kind of shaped what now constitutes a good life compared to what it might have looked like several hundred or thousand years ago.

16:05

If we look to other cultures, there are other kind of like frameworks or concepts that are used to, I guess, express what a good life looks like in these cultures.

An example that you might be familiar with is ikigai in Japan.

16:22

This is a concept in Japanese culture that is about finding your passion, your purpose, your reason for being.

And it kind of involves finding the thing that is at the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

16:40

So this is an approach to a good life that kind of emphasises finding balance, your personal fulfilment and also your contribution to society, which is kind of a common element, I think, across cultures about what a good life looks like if we look at Bhutan.

17:01

Bhutan has adopted a really unique approach called Gross National Happiness and this is something that they prioritise above their GDP, their Gross Domestic Product.

So it’s a way of measuring the well-being of their citizens.

17:18

They look at 9 different domains including things like psychological well-being, health, education, cultural diversity and they place a really strong emphasis on spiritual well-being, community and harmony with nature.

And they actually use this to calculate how happy they think their society is.

17:39

And again, this kind of shows us that personal or individual happiness is critical when it comes to living a good life, but it’s your individual or personal happiness within the broader context of that of the collective and your wider society that really matters.

17:57

In Nordic countries, and particularly Denmark, I believe they have this cultural concept called HIG.

I believe it’s pronounced and it’s this emphasis on kind of things that are cozy and they offer us comfort and togetherness with our community.

18:17

So a good life is often associated with enjoying a lot of simple pleasures, like spending time with your loved ones, lighting candles, savouring good food.

All of those kind of moments throughout the day.

I like to think of them as like golden moments, the things we often take for granted.

18:35

And there’s a focus on creating a kind of relaxed atmosphere within the wider community that is believed to contribute to happiness and well-being.

So these are just some examples of how different cultures and societies today measure or assess what a good life might look like.

18:57

And you know, they all place different aspects on different things depending on their unique place in the world, their unique culture, their unique history.

And I think it’s just important to also acknowledge that for individuals, sometimes the kind of like cultural or social norms that contribute to what is considered a good life in our society or our community might be something that we find really fulfilling.

19:26

And it might be something that we found find pretty disempowering, depending on our own values and beliefs and experience.

If you’re living in a society where the conception of a good life maybe ignores inequality or social disparities, or it doesn’t encourage people to kind of take any kind of action to address a lot of these challenges, then people can become very dissatisfied.

19:54

So I guess This is why I really like to argue for a conception of a good life, whether it is one that I’ve mentioned in this episode or not, but just one that helps you to really find that balance between individual happiness and feeling good as an individual and doing good or contributing to good for your wider community on the collective.

20:22

So I have an exercise that I personally do.

This is kind of a framework that I developed a couple of years ago as a way to kind of help other people that I was working with in the humanitarian change makers network, assess and measure whether or not they are living a good life.

20:41

And I call this approach conscious living.

Conscious living is where you are being intentional and you are continually assessing whether or not the things that you’re doing in your life and your external circumstances align with your internal values and things that you believe make a good life.

21:04

And the reason that we need to kind of do this iteratively and as an ongoing process is because our external circumstances are constantly changing.

Often times it is beyond our control.

And rather than kind of saying, OK, this is what I believe is a good life for me, and then just kind of setting it and forgetting it when our external circumstances change, if we’re not actually looking and saying, OK, is the way that I’m living my life now aligning with this, then it’s really easy to kind of fall out of that balance.

21:36

So I like to try and take what I call like a life audit every six to 12 months.

And generally, the things that I consider to be the things that will dictate whether I’m living a good life or not, they don’t change too much.

21:52

They do kind of change and evolve a little bit as I do, but they tend to change more slowly and be relatively stable.

But it’s my external circumstances that are constantly changing.

So the way I kind of visualise a good life is imagine a Venn diagram.

22:08

So you’ve got 3 overlapping circles.

The 1st circle is for your values, the 2nd circle is for your passions, and the 3rd circle is for your purpose.

So your values are the things, the principles, the ethical frameworks, the norms, whatever they might be that you hold valuable based on whether you’re a utilitarian or a de anthologist, or based on your cultural upbringing.

22:38

The society that you live in, your family, whatever it might be, they’re the principles or the things that help you to determine whether the life you are living is good in the moral sense of the word.

So for example, you might really value freedom.

22:55

You might really value adventure or exploration.

You might really value justice or equality, sustainability.

You might really value your family.

You might really value your wider cultural community.

There’s no right or wrong.

23:12

These are your personal values, but they’re the things that you will kind of use as like the compass, your moral compass.

They’re the things that allow you to say yes.

I’m aligning with these values, therefore I feel like I’m living a morally good life.

23:30

So I definitely recommend writing out maybe the top 20 values that come to mind.

Narrow it down to your top ten and then if you can, narrow it down to your top five values.

The 2nd variable is your passions.

23:48

Passions are the things that light you up.

They’re the things that bring you joy in life.

It could be anything from travelling.

It could be the music that you listen to.

It could be one of your hobbies.

24:03

You might really enjoy painting or creating.

You might be passionate about clothes and fashion and jewellery or make up.

You might be passionate about learning and reading books.

Whatever it might be, your passions are the things that bring you joy.

24:19

So it’s important to kind of know what your passions are.

Make time in your day, whether that’s daily.

Make time in your week, in your month, in your year, whatever it might be, to make sure that you’re actually engaging in these passions.

Because they’re the things that bring you joy, and they’re the things that are going to contribute to your personal happiness and your satisfaction and your personal fulfilment.

24:44

The 3rd circle is the third variable, your purpose.

Your purpose is your why.

It’s the reason you think you were put on this earth.

And you know some people believe that their purpose is something that they were born with and something that can’t be taken away.

25:03

Other people believe that you choose your purpose throughout your life.

There’s no right or wrong way, but I think we all kind of have an idea of the impact that we want to make in the world.

And you know, this is your mission.

25:18

It’s the legacy that you want to leave, for lack of a better term.

And I think that your mission is, or your purpose is kind of that overarching thing that you want to do to contribute to society, to others beyond you.

25:40

And this is really where we get that balance between doing good in the world.

So our values are kind of our compass, telling us the general direction that we want to go.

Our passions are the things that are bringing us joy and personal fulfilment and growth and lighting us up.

26:00

And our purpose is allowing us to contribute and make a positive contribution and impact our wider society or community.

And that’s where we get that balance, I think, between doing good and feeling good in the world and in life.

So I encourage you to write down your passions as well, Write down your kind of purpose, a mission statement, an impact statement, whatever that might look like.

26:26

And asking yourself periodically is my lifestyle.

Is the way I’m currently living my life based on all of my external circumstances, like where I live, my financial position, my job, whatever it might be?

Is it allowing me to live in alignment with these three variables?

26:47

And if the answer is no, that’s OK.

Ask yourself, is this a no because of a temporary circumstance outside my control?

Or is this a no because I am not actively doing something to ensure I remain in alignment with these things?

27:07

So more often than not, I find that the reason I am not engaging with a lot of my passions and the things that bring me joy is because I’m simply not prioritising them and I’m not making the time.

So I have to really allow myself to make a conscious effort to engage in these sorts of activities.

27:30

As an example, I one of my passions is art.

I love creating.

I love drawing.

It’s something that I can sometimes be really good at making time for.

Like when I was in India doing my PhD field work, I had my PhD diary, which was essentially a visual journal or an art diary where I would write about what happened in my field work and I would draw pictures and things that are related to it.

27:53

That was a really great kind of creative outlet that allowed me to live out that passion.

And then when I came back home, I wasn’t really making any time to be creative and to create art.

So I started going to life drawing sessions where on a Tuesday night every now and then I would make the time to go to a studio and I would be surrounded by other people and we would draw.

28:18

It was life drawing, so there would be a life model in front of us, and I just had that as a really nice creative outlet that allowed me to create something and kind of switch off from my work.

So that’s just an example of my own personal experience.

28:36

I tend to definitely let my passions fall to the wayside when it comes to my attempts to live consciously, so that tends to be the biggest focus for me.

I hope you found that framework kind of helpful.

I have kind of shared this a couple of times, but I will definitely leave some more resources and things about my framework for conscious living and living a good life.

29:02

But also the others that we discussed in this episode in the blog post, an article that goes along with this episode.

If you have any questions about anything social change related, definitely feel free to ask them.

You can head to humanitarianchangemakers.net/podcast.

29:20

You can anonymously ask a question if you prefer.

We love to send goodies to anybody whose question is answered on the pod.

If you want to ask directly on Spotify or YouTube, definitely just directly ask on the platform that you’re on.

Otherwise, I look forward to answering more of your questions in our next episode.

29:42

You can connect with us at Humanitarian Change Makers on Instagram or me personally at Tiana J and I look forward to connecting with you all and seeing all of the incredible things that you were doing out in your community to make change happen.