Invest in the process of something to get hapiness, rather than focussing on the outcome (which is likely to be disappointing in relation to your expectations). Seems a very smart philosophy, from Srikumar Rao.
John Wooden never got his UCLA basketball team to focus on the winning, but on playing as well as they could. They’d find that more often than not the score fell in their favour, but the point was to invest in the process not the outcome. “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming”.
A baby doesnt give up when trying to learn to walk… they invest in the process of learning, and that makes them happy. The walking is a good outcome, and certianly it’s important to have a focus or goal to give direction, but more crucial is recognising that happiness comes through the process.
A new job, better salary, new car, better girlfriend… all seem like goals to make you happy, but you soon find that they havent really changed anything within yourself, right? You’re still probably as happy/unhappy as you were before.
It’s partly marketing’s fault, of course, in selling the outcomes to the people, but perhaps it’s time we started on realising what we’ve already got and enjoying the journey we take to the new goals.
Louis CK has some thoughts along this line – that we take too many things for granted. “Everything’s amazing, right now, and nobody’s happy.” He cites technology like telephones, planes and more, but he’s got a point.
“Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.”
- ANON
Below is one of my favourite stories, best of all because I read it in The Economist:
A banker holidays each year in Mexico on the beach. Each morning he watches a local fisherman go out to sea, and each evening he watches the same man return with just one or two fish. He eventually asks him why he only catches so few to bring to his family. He’s out there all day, after all.
The banker explains to his eager pupil that if he brought home a 3-4 fish he could sell a couple at the market and get new clothes for his wife, books for his kids… if he took his brother or son out to fish with him they’d catch a great deal more fish to sell at the market and they could get a nicer house or even a bigger boat.
The fisherman’s enthralled – “Si Senor, and then what?!”
The Banker continues: he suggests the fisherman could employ a number of local men to help on the boat, thereby catching loads more fish, buy a second or third boat, start selling to major cities and even foreign markets, rather than just the local village…
“And then what?!”
More follows: cannerie, fishery, multinational fleet, riches upon riches!
“And then what?!”
“Why, then you could retire with your family on the beach, and go fishing every day…”
