My friend and I were discussing productivity as a means to happiness and I told him something that I hadn't thought about in a long time - it used to be the only way I thought about such things, but times change and my thoughts about the world mostly evolved beyond simply distinguishing the mental realm from the physical.
But anyway, he said that being productive, and getting things accomplished - especially getting things built - makes him happy, and that he had a fear of dying without a sense of accomplishment. He and I have known each other long enough for him to understand how few projects in the physical world I feel compelled to do (think: things like home or vehicle improvement / maintenance), so he knew that wasn't true of me.
But what is true, I told him, is that I have a corollary desire to set right my mental and spiritual state, so that when I die I am in a place of peace. And, being productive in that sense - identifying and removing mental complexes, coming to understand myself better and find my place in the world, etc...- gives me, as far as I can tell, the exact same thing he is describing - satisfaction, and though it, happiness.
I'm not sure how profound the parallel is, but it felt worth writing down.
