Fruitless Happiness

This article is related to the incessant search for happiness that torments many people. The persecution of this chimera seems to be becoming more and more imperative for some of them. Sometimes, an example of what happened to another person may be a good help to increase caution. Even more so if this other is a public figure who, apparently, would not need to seek much more well-being in his life.

The idea came with Djokovic's victory at Wimbledon last weekend. It is well known that this high-level tennis player, one of the best in the world, has spent a bad season, unmotivated and unfocused until he seems to have returned to his best.

The title "fruitless happiness", can well illustrate this long period, if we consider the short career time for a top-level tennis player. Something similar can happen to anyone. One only need to be obsessed with an active pursuit of supreme welfare and have the unfortunate idea of putting himself into the hands of a "guru" whose method is based on prescribing increasing doses of "love and peace" to attain "happiness".

This is a newsworthy example (due to the tennis-player notoriety) of the dangers that certain methods entail, but it can serve as a warning to all. The problem is not in the pursuit of happiness, nor peace, or even love. The big problem begins when a third party tries to convince a professional that this type of search should be his main goal.

If a high-performance sportsman goes so far as to express, in public, ideas like “… we need to establish the connection with the divine light", it does not seem to be a natural and positive evolution in his career (as an example, you can see how The Guardian has treated this information).

Obviously, each of us has the right to choose what paths we want to follow in every moment of life. However, in the case of Djokovic, it now seems evident that his goal was to continue his brilliant career, play better than others and win tournaments. Does anyone think it is possible to become the world number one, in another way?

Yes, it is possible for anyone to think like this, also with the right to think whatever we want. What can no longer be considered legitimate is that he exerts his influence to necessarily force others share his vision of the world.

In this case, I do not think that the "guru" who advised him had bad intentions. It's hard to believe that anyone intends, voluntarily, to complicate the career of a high-performing professional who does not harm anyone. Thus, only two hypotheses remain: either the "guru" is very confused about the priorities of the person he intends to assist, or he really believes that he has been "enlightened", in some way, by the "gift of truth." Whatever hypothesis may be considered, it is not too much to recall the familiar phrase: "the way of hell is paved with good intentions."

Knowing that the tennis-player has also suffered some sports injury, these considerations may seem too risky. However, they are not only based on news accessible to everyone. I also had the opportunity to confirm some information, over the last two years, with Spanish tennis professionals who know more about the circumstances, the conjecture and the consequences of this unfortunate professional collaboration. Neither Boris Becker nor André Agassi, as Djokovic’s coaches, were able to stop this vicious circle that led to such a tough period. I have no information on the details of the final outcome, but the evidence speaks for itself. The recovery of his best performance level coincided with the departure of the “guru” and the return of his former coach Marian Vajda.

My motivation to write this post is not, in any way, to delve into the details of this case, taking advantage of news and circumstances. I am not seeking to particularize or attack a person who, in my understanding, acted with the best of intentions. In any case, since the tennis player is a public figure, it is a good opportunity to analyze such an example that, according to the evidence, contributed decisively to his moments of misfortune, on a professional level.

The main purpose of writing these lines is to alert the myriad of cases that meet "professionals" without preparation, even though they apply all their good intentions. They even try to guide whoever hires them to "give their best". The problem is that they have a "special" view of reality that impels them to establish an "exclusive" connotation of "giving their best" with peace, love, and happiness. 

In these cases, it cannot be considered that a working methodology is being applied. There is an unequivocal incursion into the ideology field. The arising question is:

Does it seem legitimate to exercise a helping profession by trying to instil ideas that fundamentally characterize a person's or group's way of thinking?

Ideologies, out of context, may lead one to believe that his view of reality is the reality in itself. This illusion is already dangerous, but it becomes even more dangerous when a messianic idea is attached: when one feels compelled to explain and organize the world according to such ideology; it does not matter whether the "world" wants or does not want to be organized in such a way.

Within “professional” activities that focus on problem-solving and improving individual or collective performance, we often find very similar cases. The difference is that most of them are anonymous cases, which deserve confidential treatment. In the case of public figures that receive the full attention of the media and publicly reveal the details of their vital choices, their examples, in certain cases, could be helpful as an analysis element about what is potentially happening with "normal" people.

To avoid falling into the self-reference of what I have published for years, related to this type of situation, I transcribe and translate bellow an extract from an article by a Spanish colleague. As a clinical psychologist, she finds many more similar cases:

"Often the exaggerated expectations that they can create, the illusions, as they are hardly achieved, end up generating in the person an exasperating feeling of incapacity (" I am useless, I give up, it is better to finish… "). And what to say when this disabling feeling is presented by comparison with a group that generally achieves its goals? A person who is not spending a good moment, and does not reach the level of others, ends up believing that others think he is incapable ("I am the anecdote within the company").

The pernicious sequence: illusion, deception, depression”

Source: https://www.terapia-breve-estrategica.es/basta-ya/

As I said before, the idea was not to deepen this newsworthy case, but to leave here this alert and a few considerations, from a non-clinical point of view, that may be useful for those who strive to achieve, or maintain, a high-performance work, in any context: the concepts of “Boreout” and “Creative Tension” that are interrelated:

Boreout:

Following the previous line of analysis, the tennis-player revealed to the press that he had doubts about his interest and commitment regarding the high-level competition. Comfort and family life prevailed at any given time. Consequently, under such conditions, those doubts do not seem foreign to his low performance. The strong contrast, between a lifetime of high-level competition work and a situation that slows down the pace of life, can transform, in one's mind, all the frantic activity related to tournaments into something deeply boring.

This example, although atypical, could reinforce the “Boreout” thesis. Contrary to Burnout, this type of "syndrome" based on annoyance due to lack of interest, and even lack of some stress and tension, prevent high-performance work levels.

Creative tension:

This concept proposed by Peter Senge, in the book "The fifth discipline", is based on the perception of the "reality" of each person or group. It is a result of their perspective of reality on the current position relatively to the goal they aspire to achieve. In certain cases, it could be useful as an antidote against “boreout”.  

The closer the perspective is to objectivity, the more appropriate is the "creative tension" that pushes us toward the goal. The nature of a tension is to seek its own resolution, but it is also important to reflect on the different connotations of the adjective "creative."

We can relate this adjective with the ability to create the necessary tension to resolve the gap between what we want to achieve and what we have today.

On the other hand, it can also be related to the "creation" of a reality that changes (positively or negatively) the perception about where we are. So we can, in a “creative” way, increase or decrease such tension by changing the perspective.

In principle, it does not seem to be reprehensible to try the increase or reduction of a “creative tension” through perspective change, if we do it under certain circumstances and contexts. It is an ethical subject that may even justify a broad debate.

However, what seems to be ethically reprehensible is that someone creates a so abstract perspective of reality that may overcloud the way towards a goal that was previously clear, precise, and concise.

To conclude, I prefer to keep the idea that, in such cases, we are dealing with uninformed persons and involuntary confusions between methodology and ideology.

Anyway, the good intentions...