Dan Ariely quote on motivation and meaning

[Scott]

One of my favorite writers and speakers, Dan Ariely, gave the following quote to Time following the recent release earlier this month of this new book, Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations. Here is the quote:

The things that give us deep happiness are inherently things that take longer and have a big element of meaning in them. Running a marathon, writing a book, doing a start-up, climbing a mountain, being successful in some project… Whatever it is, the things that people report as important parts of their lives are ones that don't fit with our pleasure principle. If you ask yourself what is it that all of those things have, it is meaning. It is something that transcends the moment and it's really about something much bigger. But often when we pursue happiness, we don't think about meaning, we think about momentary joy. Which I think is actually counter to meaning.

I love that! There is so much wisdom in so few words, in my opinion. What do you think?

I can't wait to read his new book!