Aristotle believed in the "Chief Good."

The "Chief Good" translates loosely into "Happiness."

The idea is that everything we do is with the end result of happiness. For example, ice cream and sex can have an immediate happiness effect, where diet and exercise promise happiness in the future. We loose weight to look attractive to meet someone that will make us happy. Or, we work long hours to make a lot of money to buy the things that we believe will make us happy.

If Aristotle was right, then we should be able to break down our daily activities into two categories; activities that cause immediate happiness and activities that promise happiness in the future.

I looked at the activities in my life that did not fall into these two categories and found it difficult. I eat well, sleep well, and exercise to stay healthy, attractive, and energized, all things that would make me unhappy if the opposite were true. I meditate, code (computer program), and socialize because it brings me immediate happiness. And, I work to pay bills, which cause less stress and more happiness then if I don’t pay my bills. I also enjoy the immediate gratification of helping others that my job provides.

I realize that there are people out there that don’t enjoy exercising, but do it to loose weight, and others that don’t enjoy their jobs, but do it to pay bills.

Again, a cognitive (thinking) switch might help make life more enjoyable.

If you exercise to get to a certain weight, then try something else to get to that weight like diet. Now, you can think of exercise as something you do because you enjoy it. You can make exercise fun by mixing it up, treadmill, going for a walk on a sunny day, or taking a yoga class. The idea is to redefine exercise as an activity that you do for fun and therefore will do for the rest of your life regardless of your weight.

The same goes with your job. If you dislike your job, make a plan to get trained in something that you do enjoy and can do in the future to earn money and bring immediate happiness. In the mean time accept that this is not your dream job, but that you are doing something to get that dream job (future happiness).

So, whether you are exercising, working at a job you dislike, or do several other things that promise to make you happy in the future, bring some of that happiness into the here and now and focus on the immediate happiness that these activities bring.

Remember, whether you do the cognitive switch or not, you are still going to exercising and getting up in the morning to go to that job you dislike.