Image by Renegade98 via Flickr

After watching the historical Obama win, a lot of movement progressives (as well as ordinary people) around the world were incredibly happy. As he so eloquently pointed out during his acceptance speech, this victory wasn’t his victory, it was the victory of everyone who went out and worked hard every day to make it happen. Obama’s win felt incredible to so many people because his supporters, numbering in the millions went out, worked hard, and proved that with the right hard work, change is possible — big positive events are possible.

As Obama put it:

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

However, it’s important that we all contain the joy we had that night and work in a fashion to ensure that it remains with us in the long term. This won’t happen by being a passive observer. It doesn’t happen by having any one of us insist on ideological purity for our cause, and it doesn’t happen by accepting a single victory in a long fought war between the forces of progress and the forces of destruction. It doesn’t happen by waiting for a leader. As was made clear during this election cycle, it happens through hard work and unity. Go out, start a club, help a progressive politician, develop an open source project, write a progressive blog, work to improve the world and stop those who want to harm the world and our liberties. Work hard, have small victories, and slowly bring not just your country, but the world into the future. We’ve already wasted too much time this millenium fighting the old battles.

If you remember how you felt and want to feel it permanently, then work hard to acheive more small victories. Research has shown that while rare, profound events are exciting and provide happiness in the short term, in general, they won’t make you happy in general. Instead, many small positive events will.

According to Daniel Mochon and colleagues, however, this is not the full story. Mochon’s team have tested the idea that whereas rare, massive events have no lasting effect on happiness, the cumulative effect of lots of little boosts may well have the power to influence happiness over the longer-term.

How can you ensure these small positive events will keep on happening? By working hard, getting involved with your community, and acheiving small changes on your own. It is really that simple. A small success is exactly that little boost. By working hard and consistently acheiving little boosts, your baseline happiness level will go up over the long term. By only aiming for large victories, you may be happy momentarily, but it will be fleeting. This is in essence what Joseph Campbell referred to when he said to find your bliss.

Beyond the simple enjoyment of accomplishment, there is another benefit to taking a task and working hard on it rather than spending all of your time reading the internet or watching TV. You can become “fucking awesome” at something, if you spend enough time on it. Many researchers believe that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice on a task to become an expert at it. This covers everything from piano playing, to mathematics, to handwriting, to community organizing, to blogging. 10,000 hours of hard, dedicated work.

Every hour, you have a little success, and that little success drive you forward. 10,000 hours will pass rapidly as long as you get over the initial hump in any learning curve.

So, what do I learn from this? Don’t go for the big one off, keep on working.

And change the world for the better.

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