When I was young, I often wondered what is the purpose of making my bed every morning when I knew it’s going to be messed up again at night. It felt like a pointless ritual with no reason or purpose, yet my parents insisted on doing it.
The exact same thought crossed my mind when it came to cleaning and decorating our home for festivals. I always questioned the point of spending so much time, effort and money into decorating our home for celebrations that lasted only for a few days. Yet again, everyone around me seemed to enjoy doing it.
To me these tasks and rituals felt utterly useless because of the temporary nature of the final output. The fact that the bed would be messed up again and the decorations would have to be taken down in a few days made me resent the effort involved in doing it, as it seemed like all that work would quickly be undone.
As I grew older, I began to understand why people invest some much time and effort in doing these trivial things and how they also tend to enjoy it.
It’s the process that matters and not the outcome.
I realized that it’s the process of doing it that they enjoy and not so much the end result. My younger self always focused on the final outcome first while the process came later and because the final outcome was temporary, the process of doing it felt pointless to me.
Making the bed each morning, for example, makes people feel clean and organized. This feeling sets a positive tone for the day ahead. The end result does not really matter as the feeling is derived from the process itself.
Similarly, participating in festival preparations creates a feeling of joy, a sense of purpose and belongingness which has nothing to do with the quality of the decorations – the end result.
It’s this feeling of happiness and a sense of purpose derived from these activities that people truly crave for, rather than the final outcomes of those activities.
Now, when I reflect on the perceptions of my younger self, I see that they were driven by a keen curiosity of knowing the reason of doing something and the tangible value of the outcome. I was too focused on the end result and could never appreciate the intangible value of the process itself.
However, I now feel that I’ve lived long enough to understand the importance of doing things that make you happy, regardless of their reason or purpose. I’ve come to appreciate that the true value lies in the happiness and fulfilment derived from the process itself, rather than fixating on the outcome.
Creating this blog is one such activity that I have changed my perception towards. In my earlier attempts, I was always focused on the final outcome of my blog – the views, the ads, the money, the followers, the technologies, etc. Now I am focusing on the fact that I really enjoy the process of writing and it makes me feel good. I hope to continue doing it.