My idea of happiness

My idea of happiness is forward looking. Let me explain that.

Many people enjoy the moment. When a song is being sung, they enjoy the song. When chicken tandoori is being served at Bade Miyan, they enjoy the chicken… right there, right then. No doubt, I also enjoy the song and the amazingly prepared chicken.

But I feel even happier when I expect happiness to come in forthcoming moments. I get happy in anticipation of happiness rather than the current moment of happiness. (I think that’s like the investment model, where postponement of your current expenditure is explained with the help of possible future returns! :)

Let me elaborate on that. Of course, I enjoy each and every moment of a wonderful Manchester United v/s Arsenal match. (I don’t enjoy Arsenal v/s Man Utd that much! :) But what I enjoy more is that the moments that precede the match.

Imagine this. A Saturday afternoon. The feeling of having the next day entire for yourself. No guest expected at home in evening. No particular plans with friends. Time is ticking. Match is scheduled at 7.30 pm. Its 7.15 now. I have already bought two Bacardi Breezers (one orange and one lime). They are chilling in fridge. I have just ordered one nice pepper chicken sandwich or a stuffed crust pizza. And I am just sitting there in front of TV expecting a good two hours of fun. The pre-match program opens with John Dykes and Steve McMann building up to the match in their signature style!

Agreed, during the match and at the end of the match (especially if United win), I am very happy. I am quite content with the amazing food I just had. But that happiness just might be 30-40% of what I felt at 7.15 pm.

Now I know, that given the possibility of looking at alternative histories at the end of the match, the match could have been very boring, or worse if United had lost! There could have been some seriously pain-in-the-delicate-part phone calls which I couldn’t avoid. There could have been some over-smart family friends(?), who happened to bless our home with their (a**)holy presence. I don’t deny all these possibilities. Still, I get excited every time I expect some nice thing to come! :)

I am really not the kind of person who will necessarily feel happy happy happy at the end of a wonderful event. Yes, I will feel happy if a pretty girl just went on a date with me. And definitely I will feel happy if my guitar guru tells me that I have become a far better guitarist than I was one year back. But those, for me, are very rare moments. Those don’t come too often in my life. (Or if they did, they wouldn’t be so special anymore.)

So here, I value the frequency of happy events rather than magnitude of single individual happiest event. (Mr. Taleb, I beg to differ with you when it comes to this! I can’t remain patient anticipating a super-wonderful Black Swan. :) Life is too short for me to wait for that single happiest moment, I feel. That’s why I derive more happiness from the moments, the moments where the anticipated enjoyment excites me, the moments which might be smaller in terms of the individual happiness magnitude, but together they punch a great deal of joy in my life!