As I was shaving today morning, I had a thought - a question, to be precise. It was not "Is this razor too blunt for my sensitive face?" and neither was it "Is my facial hair flourishing more as I grow older?" It was slightly more philosophical. Does achieving my goal make me happier or having the feeling that I am on the track to achieve my goal ?
When I think about everything that I have desired and achieved, right from the smallest things to the more important ones, I will say that being on the track to success gives me more happiness than success itself. Of course, in a way, I am quantifying happiness here . But then the question begs for it.
My reasoning - when you accomplish a task - no matter how small or large, you can only bask in its success for a limited amount of time. It will soon become old for you and much faster for others. But when you are on your path to accomplish it and are absolutely sure you will reach your goal, you have this whole feeling of happiness drawn-out over the entire period of time that you are trying. So you are happier, albeit on a lower scale for a longer period of time as compared to happiness on a higher scale for a short period of time. I am definitely one of those people who would go for happiness over a longer period of time than for a few moments of euphoria. I think most people are that way. If you don't think you are, ask yourself these 3 questions:
1. When you watch a game -any game, do you enjoy the moment when your team is doing a victory lap with the cup or do you enjoy the moments they were actually playing to go on and win the game?
2. If you climb Mount Everest, will you enjoy having your picture taken at the summit more or will you enjoy the actual climb more?
3. When you have sex, do you enjoy the precise moment of orgasm more or do you enjoy the build-up to it more?
Of course, there are bound to be the usual counter-arguments like - When you go to a dentist to extract your tooth without any local anaesthesia, do you cherish the process of the tooth being wrenched out of your jaws with a pair of steel pliers more or the actual moment when the tooth is extracted and there is no more pain (relatively). All I can say to this is - just think about what the dentist enjoys more.
3 comments:
Is this why it takes you so long in the bathroom?
Wasnt this supposed to be a light and humorous blog? Where does philosophy come into this?
lol.. recalled mini punjab and your extempore 'slutty savitri' dialogue. the context has vagued out, but the dialogue still has us all here in splits..
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