Hey all, let me tell you a story.
For that l need a character, let’s say a little kid named Adam. That seems alright. Let our little Adam be that cute chubby kid that just takes your breath away when he plays with you and makes you skip a beat when he flashes that honey-sweet smile. You won’t let anything fade that smile on his face.
Let me tell you, Adam’s one little secret.
He loves chocolate muffins!
Oh, you should see his face when you give him one. To see his majestic smile, you will give him a chocolate muffin. He came running towards you with a warm kiss. The next day you give him one, he came running with a tight hug. You gave him one more the next day, he will run towards you to take that muffin. The next day he will walk, till eventually, he loses all of his excitement for Chocolate muffins. That is not a great ending to our story.
What happened here?
We all know what happened with Adam, it happened to us as well. Our brain will surprisingly get used to any experiences regardless of how spectacular they are, and this is what they call Hedonic Adaptation.
Why do you need to hear all this?
What does this have to do with anything?
We are all little Adams (Halleluiah!).
I remember when I used to get mesmerized by the sunset in my backyard, looking at mountains in awe, finding peace in the sound of a river flowing. But then you see sunsets, mountains, and rivers every day and get bored with it.
When you are little everything is exciting, and every journey is an adventure. Then we grow up and all that excitement and adventure goes away as well, or rather gotten used to. When we were little being happy was effortless, but now for you and me and all of us, being happy is a choice that we all have to make deliberately.
Now that we know what is the problem, How to solve this?
How to reclaim our lost happiness?
The solution is simpler than you might have guessed, be playful!
That’s what made everything interesting and enjoyable in our childhood. But when we grew up, we were taught to be serious and make serious choices. We were made to think that the amount of success we have correlates to the hardship we face.
All of this led to a horrendous conclusion that you need to suffer to be successful, which is unmistakably counterproductive. This might be why we don’t enjoy our lives, we became serious and began searching for hardships.
Being playful is liberating and exciting and is the basic essential you need to be creative. Stress is the enemy of creativity.
Do you feel a void within you or feel adrift?
You often blame it on yourself and think that there is something wrong with you, but in reality, it is the society that is wrong, and the only way to fix it is by transgressing the norms.
Be playful!
This alone will encourage you to take braver decisions, become empathetic, and achieve creative outcomes.
Being an adult means being serious is an absurd notion that society just imposed on us. We often complain that life is boring, but it is boring because you are approaching everything with pre-defined solutions or paths.
Life will become exciting if you choose unconventional paths and approach everything with a bit of playfulness. Try to find alternative solutions, try to be creative and it all starts with being playful!!
The most important aspect of it is that even if you didn’t reach where you wanted to be, at least you will be happy! So stop following the familiar paths and start making your own.