When you play a cricket match with full focus and attention, it provides you one type of creativity. And when you lose a game, it gives you a kind of dissatisfaction. But our cognitive comprehension teaches us to experience joy only when we win the match because we tune ourselves with the feeling of winning. Failure or losing the game is not an enjoyable aspect and this itself is a wrong interpretation and cognitive illusion. One cannot escape the feeling that equating joy with winning reduces the scope of joy altogether. One has to take the playing as a process or a job, and so one has to put the best possible efforts to win the match. After fixing the target of winning, if you somehow get defeated, it is no way a reflection of your less talent or effort. You should not take it as a cynical celebration of one’s athleticism. You should not be gloomy from the sense of pleasure and fulfillment because you or your team has not tasted the victory. When you think that you have to win only, then that spirit will suck your life and make you detached from the enjoyment of sports itself. There is nothing wrong in showing your zeal to win, and you can fix the same as per desire. Making this as a benchmark, focus wholly, but concentrate on the efforts, not on the results only.
Some people grumble and remain confined in the sour face for hours together when they lose. Still, some people exhaust themselves so much that they hardly have any energy left out to taste the fruit of winning the game. A few individuals who are indifferent in their attitude, they enjoy their efforts irrespective of the outcome.
You must always have charismatic desires to come up in the life, whether it is related to your studies, sports, or any other field, but you should not lower down your joy when you fail to achieve the same. The Taittiriya Upanishad says that God has desires. In fact, there are a lot of fantastic stories that reflect the enjoyment of Vishnu, Brahma and other Gods in the midst of happy dances of fairies and angels. You have only to ensure that fulfillment of desire should not be the only criteria to eliminate your happiness when you fail to achieve the goal. For example, I work in a company as a Director (Contracts and Marketing) for the past ten years and if I urge that when I become the managing director of this or any other enterprise, I will be happy – the desire is not a correct interpretation. Based on this mental frame, if I postpone the happy moments of the life at present then I will misinterpret the concept of real happiness. There is no meaning of fixing that type of goal. In joy, don’t put any condition.
People often misconstrue the happiness with achievement and monetarily sound. If that is the case, then a poor man who has no tangible asset and bank balance can ever be happy. On the contrary, in our society, we have seen that despite a poor condition, many poor people are never showing their frustration. So, there is nothing like that you can only celebrate when we reach our destination. If we reach, it is advisable to celebrate, but even otherwise after putting best efforts, if we fail to do so, let us not be pervaded with gloominess. For example, you have taken part in a race, and you are not the winner. Don’t lose your heart and waste energy to remain in sadness. Instead, celebrate for the thrill at having run the race. You must enjoy the fatigue you face like delicious food. You may correlate your happiness with a goal and must achieve the same. You must be happy to notice the struggle you have given to accomplish the target. Another example – let us take the case of a classic musical concert. The artist performs in a big auditorium in front of thousands of music lovers and heterogeneous group of audiences. He gets deeply involved in his performance with mindfulness and for all practical purposes; he forgets that large audiences are sitting in front of him. He even becomes unmindful of the applause or the accolades of fans, and he does not think of his professional fees when he performs with so much intensity. He only remembers to bring the enjoyment of performance and make it alive and not much bothering about the round of applause, the standing ovation or the money part attached to the playing the concert. So, the basic fundamental principle of any performer must be – enjoy the process, enjoy the journey and enjoy the effort. You have to only rely on your masters, spiritual gurus, and your teachers. Be faithful to their advice, but when it comes to the subject of happiness work yourself vigorously and dutifully until the time the death knocks your door. You must ensure that you will work hard with smartness. There is no need of making a big tree and expectation of sizeable roses in a vase. Don’t try to work up the lather in a running stream. Set and evaluate your goals, estimate the quantity and the quality of effort to be given in achieving the destination mean your return or your investment or your energy. You have to be careful to calculate your ROI quotient, and if you opine that your calculation provides you a satisfactory and positive feedback, you exert your efforts towards your goal. It is known as smart work putting a constant effort. Needless to say, that failure is one side of the shot. You cannot expect that all your efforts will deliver hundred percent results. In all competitive spheres of lives, be it sports, education, service or business, one side has to lose at the cost of the win by another party. You need to show positivity for your struggle, efforts, and working rather than only counting the joy of success. The loser should not feel less heartened since they have not tasted the success. You must develop a habit of feeling and consider the win and the loss in the same fashion as a true warrior.
