"Goldilocks Good". What It is and How to Get It.

"Goldilocks Good" is a concept about flow and effort, more specifically about how to achieve a state of happiness.  So how do reach this point of "Goldilocks Good"?

Research shows that people are happiest when being challenged.  Win the lottery, sell your company, or retire, and soon you will find yourself looking for a new job or some kind of interesting work to do.  If there is no work, then we get bored.  Alternatively, be presented with bone-crushing hard work, unsolvable dilemmas, or uncertain outcomes, and then we feel overwhelmed and in despair.

Challenges that are neither too easy or too hard for the individual present an interesting picture.  The individual executing at that perfect level of difficulty is not only very happy, but he/she also loses track of time.  The hours or days just fly by without effort.  Joy ensues.

The loss of time tracking is the prime indicator of "Goldilocks Good" or "Flow", both of which can also be described as Zen.  You become so mindful of interacting with your challenge, nothing else seems to bother you.

You can easily apply this to triathlon training, racing, and meal preparation.  Being "in the zone" means to push yourself to a level of perfect counterbalance of the challenge when working out.  If you begin thinking outside of the workout, becoming strained or wondering about the finer methods of underwater basket weaving, then you are going too hard or too easy.

The same goes for eating.  Nutrition isn't supposed to be a battle of good vs. evil, twisting you between the two.  When you are cooking a meal or sitting down to eat, you already instinctively know what is good and bad.  You also already know where you stand between certain bad foods and good ones.   Just avoid the bad and eat the good with a nice effort and enjoy the challenge.  Dump all the baggage and do what you know is right.  Going to extremes will make you unhappy.

Once you know that this is how science can categorically find and define happiness, it a lot of fun to play with.  Spend the day putting the the right effort; not too hot, not too cold, but just right, and you'll be living "Goldilocks Good".