You feel joy is frivolous and not for serious people
Deep down you believe that joy, play, and fun are frivolous — unserious things for unserious people — and that a person of substance and purpose should be above such lightness. So you hold yourself apart from delight, wearing your seriousness like proof of depth, and quietly starving for a joy you have judged beneath you.
Now this is a splendid tangle, and a fool is exactly who should untangle it. The belief that joy is frivolous is itself a foolish idea — it mistakes grimness for depth, when the most serious traditions of wisdom have always known joy to be among the highest fruits of a meaningful life; the dour are not deeper than the delighted, only confused, taking a heavy face for a profound soul. Grimness is not the same as depth — a person can be heavy and shallow or light and profound, so do not mistake your own grimness for gravitas. And joy may be the most serious thing of all — the very thing a good life is finally for, the fruit the labor is meant to yield, so the serious person who dismisses joy has missed the point of their own seriousness. Give delight its full weight, and find it heavier than all your grimness ever was. Where did you learn that joy was beneath you?
What changes unlock by starting
- You see the belief that joy is frivolous is the foolish one
- You separate grimness from real depth
- You stop mistaking your grimness for gravitas
- You give joy its full and serious weight