Standalone Happiness - and Paradox of Work Life.

Standalone Happiness

I was looking at a Cricket match. Before the formal coin flip Toss, the two teams were introduced. And all the Playing 11 in each group were displayed on screen. Pakistan vs India. Although I wasn't focused on the Players, Because I was not focused on the Players, I saw that there is a similarity in both groups. Except them being males, I saw some of them were smiling in each group, while others were not. 4 or 5 of the men in Each group, were smiling, showing their teeth like horses, and looked cheerful and Happy, while others were either blank face or frowning. I could see the stress that they feel overflowed into the camera. I am sure, if we looked closely at their lives, my observations may be wrong. As, some of the smiling guys may be having intolerable attitude, and anxious life, while others may be reasonably happy in their life. Maybe smiling vs not smiling to a picture, may just be an isolated observation. Yet, at that exact moment when they took the picture, there is no denial to the fact who was happy.

Standalone Happiness

Paradox of work life

This reminded me the fact often I would like to tell myself multiple times throughout the day. Which is, if I am not happy at this moment, I would never be happy. As future is not present. What we can touch, control, be is now, and happiness is not a future event. It may sound like hedonistic. But it is a simple truth. And this creates the paradox of work. The simple question, should we sacrifice our current immediate pleasure while sacrificing our future well being and happiness? To me there is no paradox. As an example, I chose to write this article, which surely be difficult rather impossible task for some. Just like Vincent Van Gogh would not enjoy solving Goldbach's Conjecture. Some would not enjoy writing an article and thinking about things. But this article will give me a future potential to earn a few cents. Or even be happy when I see someone read and get my point. In practice I am doing work which feels like Play to me, but looks like work to others. And that is the only way someone can break the paradox of work life.

Work life paradox

Standalone Happiness at work

So, to have standalone Happiness, while during work, we must be doing some work which feels like play to ourselves. The good news is the working world is so diversified today, if searched enough we all will find such enjoyable tasks, that will pay for our time. Even if it is half the amount that we get for being stuck in a place which we do not feel comfortable. As there is always we can improve on what we do.

This can be the reason, some cricketers were smiling while others were not. Even if it is not, I like to assume it is. Maybe someone would do compare the happiness index of the players and come to conclusion in the future, as it is just a hypothesis at this point. But, it doesn't matter to you. If you feel like what I am telling is true, you can simply put it into your practice and adjust your schedule so, you will have standalone happiness more. That would be a good, achievement in this Year 2026 - Happy New Year.