The 5% Rule of Life

The most adventurous thing I ever did was travel to a small island in West Africa. Since it was a business trip, everything was company-sponsored. What more could a person ask for! Except there were so many struggles hidden behind the scenes. The scariest one was traveling alone without knowing the local language. What if I end up at the wrong place? The second scariest one was going offshore in a helicopter. While "Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham" might have given you fantasies, the reality is far from it. It is noisy. And when you see the pilots operating the controls, you question their credentials. If the chopper goes down, the survival training won't help you fend off the sharks.

 

While I was happy to get a chance to go offshore, I was also filled with dread about how things could go wrong. Sometimes, I was glad that I had life insurance, in case things did go south. “Every cloud has a silver lining”. This is a common phrase that you often hear when things are not going well in life. Ever heard the other way around? “Every silver lining has a dark cloud”. Probably not. Why are we asked to always look on the positive side in every situation? Is it not easy to find something wrong even in the best of the situations? 


There is a difference between having a happy life and being happy all the time. One needs to realize that you cannot be happy all the time. Life is never one constant. If you are sad today, you will be happy tomorrow. If you are happy today, you will be sad tomorrow. That is a given until the last moment. Once you accept this, your mind will be free from the clutches of toxic positivity.

 

I have come to a realization in the last year or so. In a given amount of time, how much time are you happy? In a week, how many days are you happy? In a day, how many hours are you happy? It is not easy to quantify it in numbers. Thinking back, you are realizing that this is much smaller than you thought.

 

I am certain that a person is genuinely happy only for 5% of their lifetime. As shocking as it is, I don’t have any surveys or theories to back it up. There might be spells of bad phase or good phase. In due course, everyone has their share of troubles and their share of happiness. No one person can be happy or sad all the time.

 

It is alright to not see the positivity when the world around you comes crashing down. It is alright if you feel threatened by small things when everything is going perfectly in your life. What others think should not affect how you should feel or think. You have complete autonomy over your feelings.



Life is all about two things – Enjoy while it lasts; This too shall pass. Everything is temporary: the happiness and the sad parts. Even if the happy parts are only 5% of an entire lifetime, it is so worth the rest of the 95% of not being happy. All the fear, anxiety, hunger, and pain I had to endure to get to Malabo were worth it. I learned so much in those 6 weeks, made new contacts, and dipped my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Happiness is a way of living life and not an end goal.

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