Opportunity Cost of being too happy

Fear lies when there’s no fear itself

After much said on Happiness, which is one’s ultimate objective, I realized that there’s actually a cost to this. So what is the opportunity cost of Happiness about? On my previous article on “Correlation Analysis between Economics and Happiness”, I spoke about putting effort in order to be happy; however this topic will touch on the advantages of being unhappy.

Scenario A

Unhappy over: Results during examinations; objectives not met in work; amount of money earned compared to your peers; low productivity from your subordinates; lack of efficiency from your team members and the list goes on.

I cite these common examples to state the different reasons which are pissing us off from time to time. Well, some might claimed that it is human nature to compare with others that is making one so upset or simply because of high expectations. Now lets look at Scenario B

Scenario B

Happy over: Obtaining a mediocre score during examination (Because you don’t have to repeat that particular paper); Achieving 50% objective that your boss tasked you to do (So that you can avoid OVERTIME); Earning lesser than your peers (So that you are not the one picking up the tab); Paying lesser to your subordinates (Since they don’t meet my expectations anyway); Fun to be with teammates (Life’s never boring with them around).

It’s apparent that if you fall under Scenario A, chances is that people will looked upon you as driven, persistent, determined, assiduous and the list goes on(Click on SYNONYMS for more bombastic words). You might be unhappy most of time, but it is definitely not a bad thing after all because as the saying goes “You reaped what you sow” Possibility is that you have a standing in society with that “Unhappy” attitude.

What if you fall under Scenario B?

Chances is that you are generally well-liked by people, you are happy most of time, you are a optimist, you don’t suffer from high blood pressure, you are relaxed and despite all that attributes, there’s a drawback to this. “Fear lies when there’s no fear itself”. What this sentence means is that, it is actually quite scary when you are not scared of anything. Reason being that one tends to overlook alternatives or anticipate Murphy’s Law (Anything that can go wrong will go wrong). Secondly, without a demanding attitude, its pretty hard to achieve good results.

I once read “The Art of Happiness” by Dalai Lama, about the topic on pain. Dalai Lama explained that the fear of pain can aid in preventing you from getting injured or diminish further suffering. For instance, if you nervous system breaks down and your body do not have the ability to experience pain, this may pose a danger if you are cut accidentally and bleeds profusely thereafter. Without pain as an “alarm system”, you would not know when to prevent further blood loss which might be detrimental as time passes. My point is that pain correlates with being unhappy, which is not a bad thing after all.