'The Pleasure Model' : Instant Access To The Best In Life
If you've read my previous two posts and agreed on what I have said there, then you must have understood that Pleasure happens to be the center-point around which my life revolves lately. The purpose that this third part serves is that, without this part, the knowledge in the previous part will do more harm to you than good. This is a DIY guide or model that will help you experience the best in life.
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'Instant Access To The Best In Life' is the third post and the final post in the 'Pleasure Maximization' guide. I strongly recommend reading the previous two posts before continuing ahead.
1. Designing The Pleasure Model
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a) Before I describe my model, let me tell you that unless you've read the previous two posts and completely accepted pleasure as the center-point of life just like I have, then this model would be of little help to you.
b) But if you agree with my view and want the best in life too, then you'd require this model because without this model, you'll find yourself indulging in low quality pleasures instead of doing things that you are passionately interested in and you will simply not achieve the best in life for yourself.
c) So firstly step, is to divide our sources of pleasure into broad categories like music, social life, Internet, sports etc. Only you would know what activities you pursue for pleasure and based on that, tag them into broad categories. For example, the broad categories of pleasure in my life are playing guitar, listening music, social life, writing, reading, watching movies, Internet.
d) Then, we start by placing the highest source of pleasure at the top-most slot and continue placing the next to follow sources of pleasure in a descending order of their pleasure content.
e) You don't need to draw a diagram like the one shown above, you can just number and write your sources of pleasures in an descending order on your cell-phone or a piece of paper with a heading 'My Pleasure Model For The Best In Life'. (I use my cell-phone because it is very convenient to refer to the model whenever I need to.). And voila, you are done!
My Pleasure Model As An Example
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2. How The Model Works
a) I will talk in reference to my model. My model is divided into seven sources of pleasure: playing guitar, listening music, social life, writing, reading, watching movies and Internet. Playing guitar is my passion and happens to be the most pleasureful, inspiring and relaxing activity for me. Hence, playing guitar gets the top-most position in the chain. Next, I love listening to music too but I would anytime trade-up for playing guitar rather than listening music i.e. I get more pleasure in playing music than listening music. Hence listening music comes to spot number two and so on till I reach the lowest source of pleasure in my life that is surfing the Internet.
b). Now we are about to understand how the model will actually work and why I consider it so awesome and the best insight in my life yet. In your normal, real, day-to-day life, you will refer to the model and start with the top-most source of pleasure and you will indulge in it until you burn out completely and are in a state where you can't to do it anymore. Example: I would start with playing my guitar and play it as long as I no longer feel like playing it (currently I play 5 hours at a stretch). You obviously gain the maximum pleasure out of your top-most source of pleasure and hence will want to indulge in it as much as possible. So you will indulge unless you burn out.
c) Once you are totally burned out of the first pleasure, start with the second source of pleasure; which in my case would be listening music. So I will listen to music for hours unless my ears start paining and I can't take it anymore. Then I would jump to the third pleasure- Social Life, i.e. going out and meeting friends and hanging out etc. and so on.
d) I will keep descending until I am not in a state to pursue the top-most pleasure again and once I pursue the top-most pleasure, I re-begin the whole model all over again.
e) The beauty of this model is that, you are now indulging in better and higher sources of pleasures rather than lower and diluted ones. You are indulging in what you consider is the best in your life. For example, my habit of surfing the Internet for hours is now replaced with playing guitar and writing. Note that, I feel the same passion for playing guitar since the first time I picked it up three years ago. But I am playing it more regularly lately because I implemented the above model and I start my day with playing the guitar and descending to lower pleasures. Earlier, I would start with surfing the Internet for 3-4 hours, feel lazy and low on energy and waste the rest of the day too. But now, because of the 'Pleasure Model', I start my day with playing guitar instead.
f) If the Method is planned and executed perfectly, there is a high chance that you'll completely stay in the higher strata's of pleasure a lot.
g)The whole model seems simple and boring on a piece of paper or in digital text but works wonder once you implement it correctly in real life. The improvement in life, habits, productivity, clarity of mind and your internal sense of happiness and pleasure will make you realise how beautiful the model is and ensure you get the best in life.
h) The main difference between my model and 'every-other-model-to-success-and-better-life' is that the other models require you to give up things or abstain from things you love. They say give up on something or reduce this or reduce that or abstain from this and this etc but I say, only arrange your pleasures in a descending order and then indulge in them until the point that you are totally burned out and can't indulge in it anymore. No stopping, no giving up on things and no abstaining. Only pure indulgence!
3. How To Plan And Execute The Model Correctly
a) Write down your own model because firstly without writing it down you won't remember it for long or be able to use it for reference. And secondly because, you have to really thoughtfully and after much careful reasoning and re-checking arrange your pleasures. Every source of pleasure that makes on to the list should be positive and it should also be placed in the correct order(Very Important!).
b) Negative sources of pleasure which cause more damage to you or leave you in a state of mind where you feel lower, angry, negative, frustrated or depressed should not make it to the list and neither should they be a part of your life. Exp. Watching television, negative people and surroundings, terrible addictions etc should be cut out of the model and life.
c) The list of pleasures should contain only your passions and pleasures not dreams and wishes. For example, travelling to foreign countries although high on my wish list doesn't make it to the Pleasure model list. Travelling to foreign countries would surely be a great and pleasureful experience but it is a wish that I desire to fulfil in future not a activity of pleasure that I pursue daily.
d) You may not get the model correct the very first time you write it down and the only way you'll realise that you have messed up the model is that in the coming weeks you yourself will realise that although you have written down the model you are not following or are not able to follow the model. In such case you'll have to modify your own model. The great thing is that, earlier when things would go wrong in life, you'd be completely lost and hit rock bottom leaving you mentally drained and also wasting your time. But now you have this 'Pleasure Model' as a net to protect you from hitting rock bottom and just by correcting the model, you are back on track again.
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