After six months, it’s time for the 2015 mid-year review pleasure. My virtue of pleasure started out as pleasant pastimes but changed its name on its way through the values rethink. It originally only contained the elements of adventure and recharge, but then I added “just because” as a space for random off the cuff things to just happen. I wanted to include pleasure as an area of development to bring some Famous Five fun and adventure into my everyday life, and not just focus on the grown-up responsible stuff all the time. It’s harder than it sounds; I’ve been grown-up for a long time.

And as I look back I discovered something really quite intriguing. A lot of the things I have reported as pleasure are all about things I was learning and doing in pursuit of other activities. And things I have done “just because” are things that more technically should be called “adventure” because they are things that I have done because I had no concrete reason not to.

Adventure

As it turns out, my biggest adventure, writing the book Stress Free Dinner Parties, has become a career change that led to a second book Build Your Signature Wardrobe. And consequently, some of the most interesting and challenging things I have done this year include learning about marketing, and building websites and publishing (and so on). Starting up in the business of writing books might be my biggest adventure ever.

There has also been some new restaurants, new foods, and a trip back in time (visiting the town I grew up in).

I want to reassure Toseland that my international vacations are still on my list, but I need to sell a few more books for that!

Rating: 

Recharge

The point here was to enjoy moments of idleness rather than feel compelled to always be doing something. As someone who does not have the steady income that comes with paid employment, I still find this quite difficult. But with the warmer weather here once again, I expect that we will take more advantage of breakfast or pre-dinner drinks in the garden. Bird watching, dog playing, sunsets…

And I am enjoying being an Author. I like slipping away to research, do a bit of editing and rewriting. This is perhaps what they mean when they talk about not working a day when you follow your passion. I don’t work a day, I work all of them! Weirdly, I feel as guilty for “working” as I do for idleness.

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Just Because

It turns out that “just because” is really just another way to say adventure. Except perhaps more reckless, where I ask myself “why the hell not” before diving into something I’ve not tried before. My initial notion that pleasure is either revving up (adventure) or chilling out (recharge) still seems to be correct. It has involved new foods, the new activities that have come out of the writing and when I get lost just keep driving and see where I end up.

So that being the case, I’m going to close “just because” off. I feel like an idiot for saying it was already there, but at the same time I am really proud of myself for doing something so rebellious without noticing!

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What’s Next?

So, what’s next for pleasure? I think that my original list still stands:

• seek out new experiences
• find things to do that don’t involve tv (or deity of choice forbid, the internet)
• make time to do unproductive things

So I’ll keep on as I am.

What about you?  Are you happy with the level of pleasure in your life, or do you need to make some adjustments?

Recap

Reviewing the virtues of:

• beauty – (body, presence, home, and garden)
• friendship – (creatures, friends/family/contribution)
• pleasure – agreeing to seek out new experiences as well as make time to do unproductive things.
• wisdom – understanding ourselves and making choices based on the things we value
• wealth – having sufficient income to meet our needs and spending it wisely

Planning for the virtues of:

• beauty – living authentically and taking care of our physical well-being and surroundings (body, presence, home, and garden)
• friendship – treating the planet and other beings as well as we want to be treated (creatures, friends, family, contribution)
• pleasure – agreeing to seek out new experiences as well as make time to do unproductive things.
• wisdom – understanding ourselves and making choices based on the things we value
• wealth – having sufficient income to meet our needs and spending it wisely