It happened last Wednesday, April 9th
at the University of Algarve. Presented by PHD Jorge Humberto Dias, the theme was
“Skills to Happiness”. Expert in a subject that is nowadays becoming extremely
fashionable, he is the first doctorate in Portugal studying and trying to bring
to the general public a better understanding of WHAT happiness is, and HOW we
should aim to reach it.
Coming across as a happy communicator, he
presented to the audience Happiness from the point of view of the expert. Not
only did he share curiosities, like the colour that is linked with happiness
(orange), the flower representing this concept (orange lilies), publicity,
movies and music where we come across this subject, but also the growing
importance this matter has nowadays. He highlighted that, for the 1st time in history, United Nations accepted a proposal from Butan, and declared
the past 20th of March the official date to celebrate Happiness. Bringing
up the position of other disciplines towards Happiness, like Neuroscience,
Psychology and Philosophy, he showed that the same word can change in meaning, bringing
different concepts of the same reality according to the scope, beliefs and
perspectives behind it.
Based in what he calls the «PROJECT@ Method»,
he points several skills as key to the success of every individual project.
From this point of view it is possible to every single person to pursue
happiness in a very practical and rational way. In consequence, he presented to
the audience what he called the equation for happiness (Fx=Px+Cx) and
supported this PROJECT@ with a specific methodology framed by 6 distinct points.
Supporting his studies and further
conclusions on previous work developed by Julian Marias (contemporary Spanish
thinker that died in 2005), Professor Jorge Humberto Dias highlighted that this
Philosopher was the one that spent more time about Happiness. Devoting a great part
of his life studying this subject, his work is presented in more than 300 pages,
which makes him one of the key figures in the academic world. Pointing
important factors that can affect this Project, he mentioned envy, egoism, lack
of freedom, materialism and precarious organizational conditions (family, work,
community) as elements that can compromise the success of the Project.
Doctor Dias is now on the process of
studying envy in more detail and further studies might be presented in the
future. According to his words envy is “an extremely powerful element that can
undermineany chance of success and can jeopardise any potential Project”.
According to the words of Professor Jorge
Humberto Dias, there are several skills that he feels essential to the success
of each Project: a deep understanding of the new technologies, languages
knowledge (e.g. English), autonomy, creativity and objectivity, side by side
with a certain level of specialization, a balanced pears network and a relevant
CV/ Presentation letter.
Just before he finished, and bearing in
mind the group of students standing in the audience, hehighlighted the extreme
importance, in an extremely competitive society,of standing out from the crowd
in a positive way.
After all, happiness is something achievable but
requires a certain amount of hard work, rationality and self-knowledge. The tools are out there to be used and it’s
up to the individual to gain the necessary expertise to be happy in an
effective way.
Maria Lima
VÍDEOS IN PORTUGUESE:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 to 5...
