How to watch Olympic games - Wrong way
Maybe you are in Paris at the time of writing of this, watching the summer Olympic games. Maybe you are watching a game, where there is a good chance that your country would win a medal. As you have already known, I write about mindfulness and philosophy. Hence, here I will do a thought experiment on a game of table tennis, from a spectator's point of view.
Whenever we start a game, first thing we do is we pick a side. It is easy if there is a player from your country. Obviously, there is no choice in that. But if you have been long enough in Olympic village, as often it happens, there may be no contestant from your country in the game you are watching now. Let's imagine that the game you are going to watch is not having any players from your country. Imagine its Nepal against Senegal. But the moment you look at the match, somehow you will pick a side. Depending on some criteria. Maybe you have visited either one of the countries. Maybe you hate Asians but not Africans. Or other way around. Maybe The Nepal contestant is good looking, or the other one is poor. Somehow you will pick a side, often this happens automatically. And just like you cheer up for your country you would start favoring one, and often not you will even feel a Suttle sadness once the game is over, if your favorite player did not win.
How to watch Olympic games - Riskless way
Compared to this imagine riskless way of watching a game. You cannot pick a side, consciously, try to avoid picking a side. Can you imagine such a situation. That you would be equally happy either one of them wins. It is a win situation for you if you can, and often it happens you cannot. Why is that? It is like a riskless way of living, like becoming a minimalist in life. Somehow, we are unable to enjoy a game fully if we do not pick a side. This is true for almost all the games. The reward is associated with the amount of risk we are willing to take. Sounds familiar? If you are into finance, this is the same principle why stocks are giving higher returns than bonds. It is all about risk. Now think about the game of life, would you rather be risk less like a minimalist or try to be a high achiever?
Where is the fun in it? Where is the happiness?
Following is an article I have written a year ago in the book What is time. We will try to find out where is happiness.
Step 3 - The Podium. Let's imagine a podium of three steps. Imagine any kind of sport you'd like to watch, and you have been following. Imagine it's time for presentations. National anthem of the winner is playing in the background. Everyone is presented with medals. Let's see what they are thinking. Let's look at the minds of the winners.
The bronze medalist is happy, he has done his personal best performance finishing the race in dazzling time. He is the best in his country, now he has won a medal on the world podium. He is happiest in his career, and this will be the pinnacle of his life. Why wouldn't be he happy?
The silver medalist is happy, he is on the podium, he couldn’t do his personal best. However he has got the next best, he is smiling yet there is a tug in his voice. He knows he could do better, maybe next time, maybe next year, maybe next race. He cannot fully appreciate his win as thoughts keep coming back. It should have been his anthem that is playing. Maybe he still has a point to prove to the reporters who are following him. But this time he settles for the silver.
The gold medalist, he is happy. This is the best he could imagine, second time he has won the gold, he was just a millisecond away from the world record. Once again, he has proven he is the best in the world. He could have been happier if he could get the perfect start today. It wasn't the best start, rest was smooth. He could have proven that he is the best ever lived if it wasn't for the bad start. Yet he is happy. Happiness is at 99.99 level except for the millisecond that he missed; it could have been 100.
It's not the participation, it's not the fight we are giving, it's the value which we give to these events by ourselves, determining winners and losers, triumph and failure. Who gives values to these events. If you look carefully, nobody gives value to these events. You only can give value to events in your own imagination. Whenever we measure, whenever we monitor, whenever we value, there will be a pursuit, there will be a race and there will be winners or losers. And we will lose the happiness war. To win the war against happiness, let’s lose the values we have given to our battles. Can we do that? Never forget it's the war, not the battle which needs winning.
Who taught us to give values to these events? Our parents, our teachers, our books or science? Is it our religious leaders? Politicians or friends? Can we unlearn what we have learned and become a child again?
I saw a child once playing a game. He was small, weak and significantly insignificant. The game was to collect candy on a mat. Candy was held up by a rope in a bag and released on command onto the mat. Kids ran to the mat in a rush. It was a mess, and parents encouraged their child. Everyone jumped into the middle of the mat where there was a lot of candy. And started collecting. Insignificant could not push them. I saw him go circles and circles around the majority to collect insignificant candy slipped under their feet to the outer circle. And when it is time for the winner, guess who won, against all the odds. And he lost the battle but won the war.
Is happiness relative?
I saw a post on current Olympic championship, where China who won the silver medal were in tears, while the bronze medal team were rejoicing their victory. Obviously, something is wrong, and you know what. It is relative. The amount of happiness we feel is relative to our initial target. This is the risk we are taking. How are you going to avoid such a simple mistake, is by understanding this happens, at the time it happens. Otherwise, there will be always a loss, and happiness will always not there even in a podium in Olympic games. Ironically the happiest person in the world is, not an Olympic medalist, but a monk! who owns nothing to his name. And we know why, because his level of expectation is so low, that even able to breath is a happiness.
If you would like to learn more about happiness following articles would help
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