Efficiency, I like it.

Time to put on the nerd hat...

Every since I took my first econ class my freshmen year of college, I feel in love with the concept of efficiency. Opportunity costs, marginal benefits/costs, production frontiers, competitive advantages, etc...it felt like I was finally given terms for the logical practices that always felt right.

Ok, I know that sounds like I'm romanticizing logic, but it has always been a mental comfort for me and a contributor to my happiness.

Example:

Recently a close friend of mine flat out pissed me off. This person really let me down. Anger, confusion, betrayal and all those feelings surrounded my thoughts. However, using the ideas previously stated, those thoughts are completely inefficient. Being mad is not going to make me happy. Going though the the "whys" in my head isn't going to make the situation better. I was making myself more unhappy after my friend already made me unhappy.

I didn't do anything wrong, this person acted badly towards me, so why feel bad about it? This wasn't a situation where confrontation would make it better. It was one of those, "can't go back in time and change things" situations and it showed me a lot about this person's personality. I realized I was in a great point in my life (I just finished my first half marathon, summer was starting) so why allow let someone who wronged me to affect my happiness?

So I stopped my inefficient thinking about it. I realized this person was not dependable and would not be someone I would allow "in" any more. This person no longer was a factor in my happiness.

I realize this is not a way of thinking that will work for everyone. This person will never know that his/her actions bothered me and that it changed my thinking of him/her. I was happy though. I was able to enjoy my achievement of the completion of my race and the beautiful weather outside.

Basically, I listened to all of the positives and my efficient ways of thinking, and I was happy.