Build values with goals, pursue the meaning of life

Eric, my friend, is the founder of a startup whose initial goal recently was to achieve an IPO. He became an entrepreneur several weeks ago after achieving remarkable success in a financial company. With great confidence obtained from previous success, he feels like he must exceed his past dazzling results.

However, it may burden him for the reason that he dreads choosing the wrong step for his company. Thus, it is the very carefulness that he holds to cautiously forward his career, which makes the development very slow. The outcome within several weeks was limited, and the whole process was fraught with anxiety and fear.

That is, the thing that once gave him confidence defeats him as well as becoming his source of anxiety rather than happiness. Like most people, Eric was not willing to give up. Instead, he became more determined and persisted in sticking to a certain problem, which inevitably led to a host of other problems.

the struggle switch

In his book The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris coined the term “struggle switch.” He says that as soon as an uncomfortable emotion or feeling shows up, people tend to struggle with it. It reminds me of the time when I tried my best to work out a mathematical problem but failed to do it. At that time, as a high school student, I…