Living In Your Quality World

I was recently telling a friend of mine about Choice Theory, a book written by renowned psychologist, Dr. William Glasser. In it he uses the concept of a "quality world" as the motivation for what we do, and the basis for much of the happines (or unhappiness) that we experience in life.

The quality world is predicated upon:

1.) People (we most want to be with)
2.) Things (we most want to own or experience)

3.) Beliefs (which govern our behavior)

According to Dr. Glasser, each of us, from the time we are born, formulate some idea of what a quality world is, and unconsciously base our state of happiness upon it - whether it's attainable or not. Our happiness then, is contingent upon how closely reality resembles this mental idea that we unknowingly carry with us.

Our parents are the first people in our quality worlds. Our attachments to them, and their efficiency in satisfying our many needs and demands as an infant establishes a precedent. Our parents get replaced by spouses, we develop fixations on different things, and formulate new beliefs.

When the world you envision, bares similarity to the world you actually live in, the greater the happiness you feel. The fewer the similarities, the less the happiness.