How to Live an Optimal Life

Book excerpt: Many people speak about their problems in life. In fact, this is one of the hottest topics of conversations. It doesn't really matter where you meet someone, all it takes is a friendly smile to start pouring out your life's woes to them. Everyone does the same. The result is that no one really knows how happy one is. Since everyone is talking about their miseries, it does seem that no one around is leading an optimal life. This is where the problem lies. We think that the term 'optimal life' should have a definition. We think that we should be able to peg down someone's life entirely and say, "Ah, now his is an optimal life!" But it doesn't happen that way. You might think that someone with a lot of money or someone with a beautiful wife must have an optimal life. But when you get to know them better, you begin to see the problems that lie behind the exterior façade of theirs and you realize that their life is not what you thought it to be. There's a great saying that "If everyone were to throw their problems in a pile, and see everyone else's, they would grab their own right back". This is true. We think the neighbours are always happier than we are. We think they are leading a more optimal life than we are. But if we were really to sit down and make comparisons, quite likely, we would find our problems to be the least. So, where are we heading with this? The point here is that our lives are only as optimal as we want them to be. We have it entirely in our hands how beautiful we want to make our lives. If we want to sit and brood that life is toying with us in every way possible, it is. But if we plan to take things in our hands and not let life jerk us around, it won't. We have to plan just how much control we want to give our lives. An optimal life is a very individualistic thing. For us, an optimal life would be one in which we are completely contented and satisfied with whatever we have.