While I was doing a workshop for children between the age of 10 and 19, I asked a question to all, “Could you tell me the moments in your life when you experienced real happiness….moments you cherish the most.” One boy said, “my dad works in a city which is almost 300 Kms away from our home. He comes home every Saturday evening and goes back on Monday early morning. On the Saturday evenings he takes all of us out for dinner and ice cream. These are my happiest moments in life.” A 15 year old girl said, “while I was in the 7th standard, we were taken out from the school for an adventure camp. All of us had to do rappelling (climbing down a steep rock). When I saw others doing it, I was literally afraid and was thinking of running away from the camp. My turn was on the next day. I couldn’t sleep in that night. When my turn came I told my instructor that I was sick and I couldn’t do that. But he insisted me to do it and I had no other options. Though I was dead scared I started stepping down the rock, I thought my breath had stopped and my heart had failed. I thought I was going to die. But in a few minutes I was down there on the ground. I couldn’t believe it. I never ever thought that this was that easy. I was so happy and confident, whenever I think of my past these are the most memorable happy moments in my life.”
It seems happiness is not what we think and perceive. It is more than achieving a goal, in fact it is a state of the mind. Hence even if you have no money or positions and possessions you can still experience happiness, just by being in that state. The key question is are you enjoying what you are doing; be it in your job or in sports. The best coaches in the world always inspire the team before they get on for that final match, be it hockey or cricket or football, to play the best game today and to enjoy every moment of the match. The teams which come in the final must be equal in all terms. The difference is going to be ‘the day’. That is why after losing the match the captain says, we did our best, but today was not our day. In fact the day was the same for both the teams, but for the winning team it was a good day and the loser it was a bad day. Hence it is not the day which made the difference. It is the team which makes a day good or bad. The moment the team decides that today is the best day and is going to be our day, and that we are going to enjoy every moment of the match, the whole atmosphere changes. The moment they decide that we are not going to be under stress or strain, we are just going to bring out the best in us today and going to enjoy it fully, you will see a winning team on the ground.
