Wish and you can be happy

A few young professionals want to know if one could be really happy and content in today’s world where one has ‘fast lifestyle and cut-throat competition’ as well as ‘a huge amount of stress’ to deal with.

The fundamentals of life don’t change with time. As years go by, our lifestyles may witness transformations but qualities of life stay constant. Before we dwell on the question, I would like to share a link where you can read about my observations as a life trainer. The series — aimed at professionals in particular and people in general — is titled Art of Leaving. It may prove useful.

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/chandrashekharwelankar/blog

Back to the question. In our lives, we need to clearly distinguish between the things we can control and those we have no direct control over.

We can’t really do much about the things we cannot directly control. For instance, a reckless driver runs over pedestrians on a busy road or some mentally unsound person opens fire indiscriminately. Such incidents are indeed shocking and disturbing but we cannot read what’s going on in one’s mind, can we? That is beyond our control. However, we can ensure that we don’t drive our vehicles recklessly or we don’t cause any harm to others by our actions. That is totally in our control.

Another important aspect is, regarding things over which we apparently have no control, we can do our bit to make sure that we don’t add to their uncontrollability.  For example, we may not stop people from flouting traffic norms but we can follow all the road rules diligently ourselves. Similarly, we cannot control carbon footprints globally but we can make sure that we leave behind minimum carbon footprints ourselves.

There is hardly any point brooding over things we cannot control. At the same time, we can and should do justice to those that lie within our reach. ‘Fast lifestyle and cutthroat competition’ are the things we have to deal with, come what may. Let’s do it in a wise and systematic way.

Our efforts to control things, which, by their very nature cannot be controlled, result in stress. The more such efforts the more stress. We need to find ways to put things in perspective. Art of Leaving that I referred to above discusses various aspects pertaining to our approach in details.

It is up to us to make the most of what we have. Happiness and contentment depend on the way we look at life. These are states of mind.

Consider this. We are expecting a profit of, say, Rs 10,000 in a deal and we actually have a profit of, say, Rs 6,000. In such a scenario, it is our choice to be happy and content over registering profit and not incurring any loss or be unhappy and not content over not getting the expected amount.

The question is, do we want to be happy and content? If the answer is yes — and it is for almost all of us, we need to put a congenial course of action in place. If we wish, we can be happy. Mark the words. I am not saying if we wish, we WILL be happy; I am saying, if we wish, we CAN be happy.

We are able to be happy. All that matters is exploiting that ability to its fullest. Prudent approach, plausible action plan and perfect execution of the plan hold the key. Let’s do it and achieve our goal.

—  Chandrashekhar