Skip to main content

ENJOYING THE PROCESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE "END RESULT" ALONE

Enjoy the Process and Not the End Result Alone


In our life, we always set up goals. The goal may be small or big, it may be set up during our childhood, or when we grow up, and even when we are accomplished in our fields. I would explain those with examples. As a school kid, we always want to score very high marks and get the first rank in the class. As a teenager, we want to get into a professional stream of education of our choice. As an adult, we want to earn well in our respective jobs.

All these goals require hard work and dedication. To score marks, a kid has to study hard, may be lose his sleep and normal entertainment (such as watching movies). Also, there are uncertainties, such as he may fall ill on the day of exam, or that he may forget what he has learnt, etc. Also, someone else may also be a good student, and that would prevent the kid from getting first rank. These apprehensions make the "journey of studying" not enjoyable and even stressful most of the times. Add to this the rare chance that marks are not good or he did not get a good rank, all hell breaks lose and the kid feels useless and worthless. Here, in this situation, what I have seen is that, the kid can enjoy the process of learning and forget about the outcome in exams or marks that he would finally get. In any case, there are good chances that if he studies well (as he enjoys it), he would do well in the exams and achieve his goals. Enjoying the "process" (studying for gaining knowledge) would give him one FULL YEAR of happiness, whereas enjoying the result (marks in final exam) would at the most give him ONLY ONE day of happiness! Now, tell me, which one is better? You would agree that the first situation is always better. 

I would give another example here. A young woman wants to achieve perfect fitness. She has set herself a goal of achieving a weight of 50 Kg. This would require days of dieting and exercising. She would do both these (diet control and exercise) on a daily basis, and would also keep checking her weight. In this process, a stage comes when she stops enjoying the "process" (dieting and exercising}, and the only thing that makes her happy is the "end result" (reduction of weight as shown on the weighing scale). In this scenario, what I would feel is that if she enjoyed the process, she would get several days of happiness (DAILY HAPPINESS), whereas if her happiness depended on achieving the target weight, she would feel happy only on ONE DAY, and if her weight increases, she would feel useless and worthless. As a doctor, however, I can assure you that if someone takes care of diet and exercise on a daily basis, she would be the fittest person! So, again, I am sure you agree with me that it is better to enjoy the process to maximize the happiness.

The last example in this blog would be from adult life. And I feel it applies to many youngsters and even senior people. This is about the desire to earn more money and derive happiness from the income. This requires hard work, including working long hours, even at the cost of personal and family life. It is ironical here that the reason one earns money is to improve the personal and family well being! So, if a person sets a target of earning an X amount per month, then, he or she continues to work until the target is achieved. Engrossed in the desire to reach the target, the person may not enjoy the process (working and job). It is another matter that if one enjoys daily work, it is more likely that he or she would reach the target income. So, here also, enjoying the process (job) would give happiness EVERY DAY, whereas enjoying the end result (monthly income figure) would give happiness for ONLY ONE DAY every month. 

So, I think it is clear from these examples that the process is more important than the end result. This would ensure much more happiness than if one focuses only on the end result!

I would be happy to receive your feedback on this!

Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM 
Email: drsudhirkumar@yahoo.com 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Teacher Who Changed My Life

  A Teacher Who Changed My Life Dr Sudhir Kumar   Christian Medical College Vellore has played a vital role in changing the course and purpose of my life. Several teachers have taken great personal efforts and have gone out of their way to mold me into a person in right direction and with a meaningful purpose in life. Today I would like to remember one such angel- Prof Mary Jacob, who taught Anatomy to several batches of students. I joined CMC Vellore in 1989 after having done my schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bokaro Steel City, which was a part of Bihar then. I faced several challenges after joining. The first and foremost was the language barrier. It was a Herculean effort to converse in English. Writing answers to “essay and short note” questions in English was worse. In MaJa’s (this is how students used to affectionately address Dr Mary Jacob) own words- “Your answers have the required information, however, due to multiple grammatical errors, we cannot make out...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why are Everything Negative “Black” and Not “White”?

Why are Everything Negative “Black” and Not “White”? Dr Sudhir Kumar Prejudices against Black are neither uncommon nor new, Such incidents are many, though in the limelight are few, Well known are the racism and biases of White against Black, Awareness of many other prejudices against Black we lack, In India, the most “suitable” bride is always “slim and fair”, Parents of “dark-skinned” girls are in state of perpetual despair, Fairness cream industry making millions is not new, Cosmetic surgeries for skin whitening are luckily few, Cats that supposedly bring “bad omen” are always “Black”, It is the “White” cats that bring happiness and good luck, It is a “Black” day that marks an event unfortunate or sad, Thus racism has entered into days making them good or bad, Band adorned on arms to mourn a death is “Black” in colour, Ensuring that Black is linked with sadness, sorrow and dolor, Badges worn to show protests are also Black, Linking Black with f...
Post a Comment
Read more

A HEART-TOUCHING EXPERIENCE WITH A PATIENT

WHY I LOVE BEING A DOCTOR It was one of the usual busy out-patient clinics, where I was seeing patients with a variety of neurological problems. Some patients had come for the first time and some were my old patients. I always try to talk to my patients and enquire about their family and job, as far as possible. This gives me a better insight into their problems, as well as any disabilities that they may face due to the illness. This also lets me know their support systems at home and at work place. Most patients are accompanied by a family member or a friend, especially if they have a disability. However, on that busy day, one of my patients, Mrs Leena (name changed), slowly walked into my clinic with a limp. She had significant walking difficulty and managed to make her way inside with the help of a hospital attendant. She was not accompanied by any of her relatives.  She made herself comfortable on the chair, and I could notice a smile on her face.  Six months a...
Post a Comment
Read more