Liveliness
Not everyone can be bubbly and lively, but everyone can certainly be more lively than they currently are. This is what this article is about: finding a way to include more liveliness in your life in a way that works well for you. This means that while obtaining a specific personality isn't the goal right now (unless you are positive that there is something else inside of you that is simply dying to come out), it's to become more energetic and go-getting to better accomplish the goals and tasks you would set for yourself.
Liveliness is also an Aesthetic virtue because while it isn't always attractive to be bouncing off the walls, part of what makes others beautiful is the aggressive display and application of their personality and ideals. Someone might just be fine and dandy, but they always seem more, well, attractive when you see them actively working on their hobbies and goals then sitting around the house in a funk. While being attractive isn't a good goal in and of itself, there is a reason why we find liveliness attractive in others that isn't simply shallow, and liveliness will go far to improve your personal and practical life anyway.
As we mentioned in the article about Vivaciousness, that virtue is more about having an internal energy and excitement toward living life to the fullest. Vivaciousness is very beneficial to happiness, however, and people who are very lively and productive without a strong sense of vivaciousness are often those who work hard solely out of habit and duty—and this often makes unfulfilled, unhappy people. If you are looking to work on liveliness and feel you also lack a sense of vivaciousness (and this lack might be largely responsible for a lack of liveliness anyway), then it would benefit you to work on these virtues in tandem.
Unlike other virtues that happen internally, liveliness is something that happens almost solely in your personal physicality (although what's going on the inside can certainly affect the outside). For this reason, many of the activities that focus on building this virtue are based on habit building and personal health. While focusing solely on habit-based-productivity rarely makes one happy alone, the fact that this is even possible goes to show how physical this virtue is by nature—laziness is often a case of habit and health, not a indicator of bad character.
The ways to improve your liveliness are as follows: changing your physicality (like how you move or walk around), improving your health, eliminating depression, becoming better organized, improving upon bad habits, and becoming more goal oriented (simply working on the virtues in this website may make you more lively over time, even if unintentional). The exercises down below will help you in achieving these goals.
Activities
- Walk and Talk Like the Lively You: Sometimes changing your physicality just a little bit can go a long way to change how you feel and behave. Instead of shuffling along and talking in a slow, steady monotone, begin adding more energy to your steps and include a purposeful, vibrant energy to your speaking voice. Soon, you will begin behaving and acting more lively if you can keep this up. Make sure that you remind yourself with a system that works for you so you keep this up. Writing down your goals every morning or wearing something unusual for you can sometimes help, for instance (remember the old string-tied-around-a-finger trick?).
- Get More Exercise: Getting in better shape not only makes exercise easier over time, it also makes all your movements and activities easier to complete—even those that involve sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Include exercise in your life every day, or at least five days a week.
- Lose Weight, if Needed: While it is possible to be unhealthy at a smaller weight, carrying less weight will help you spend less energy on activities so you have more left over to keep on going. Along with exercise, this will help you become much more lively.
- Work on Your Depression, if Present: If you are suffering from depression or simply have an over-negative attitude, being lively might just be nigh impossible for you. Work on treating your depression (talk to a professional) and work on virtues that help problem areas that might keep you from wanting to get out of bed and moving throughout your day.
- Make Goals, Keep Track, Keep Organized: Make goals and plan how you will attain them. Make a to-do list. Keep a calendar. Know what you could be doing at any time to improve your life and the lives of those around you. Sometimes we don't keep moving simply because we don't know what to do next, or aren't motivated by goals or activities that we plan to accomplish. Following through and making sure you keep track of your accomplishments and failings will go a long way in this area.
- Work on Bad Habits: If you watch too much TV, cut that way back. In fact, you can use all that wonderful, unhelpful stuff you like to do as a reward for following through on the goals for any particular day. Be especially wary if a bad habit or activity tends to keep you from being productive after the fact, like, for instance, you have a hard time getting back to work after you enjoy some video games.
Your Record
It's hard to judge yourself on liveliness because you're not expected to be lively all the time. While you might be at "fault" if you are rude to someone at any time of the day, taking a break isn't always a fault. You will have to make your own, specific goals and judge them yourself when you you fail to live up to them or fail to perform the activities. Additionally, here are some other goals you can mark yourself at fault for if you need some guidance: If you make an entrance into your home or at work for the first time, and you come in groggily or fail to greet everyone with a sense of enthusiasm, then mark yourself at fault. If you can't remember one time in an entire day you failed to move at a speed of a jog or a run, or at least a fast trot, then mark yourself at fault. If you can't remember one responsibility that you didn't feel enthused about completing on any level, then mark yourself at fault for that day. Make sure to make your own goals and activities based on your own vision of who you want to be and behave like.
Opinions
Productive achievement is a consequence and an expression of health, self-esteem, not its cause.
Nathaniel Branden, Canadian PsychotherapistEvery human being is the author of his own health or disease.
Buddha, Founder of BuddhismScience is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
Immanuel Kant, German Philosopher of the EnlightenmentGolden Mean
Recommended Reading
Energy Addict: 101 Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Ways to Energize Your Life
The author of this book hopes to teach its readers how to be full of energy and feel good every day using physical, mental, and spiritual techniques.
Move into Life: The Nine Essentials for Lifelong Vitality
This book explains the possible dysfunctions between mind and body that can lead to poor health. Research, stories, and exercises are provided to help you improve on these disfunctions.
General Rules
Practice virtues daily so that they become ‘habits of the heart’.
Don‘t strive for perfection.
Never give up! Remember: even the greats have off days.
Rely on your intuition.
Avoid extremes. Strive to achieve the golden mean between excess and deficiency of a virtue.
Have fun and enjoy the program with humor and optimism.