by Rahul Daswani

As with many of my deep realizations, poker on Sun caused me to reflect upon life and realize what the true secret of living a happy life is - to understand that the outcome is irrelevant.

In the poker analogy (life situation in brackets), calling/raising a bet (making a decision) is based completely on current understanding of pot odds (i.e. the limited information which we possess). Often times the river (result) is beyond our control, all we can do is keep making what we think are the right decisions and leave the rest up to probability (God?). Basically this is the reason why I don't like rabbit hunting (thinking about what might/could have been) - it only serves to confuse you (interesting point - some outcomes are NOT reflections of natural progression and those paths followed should not necessarily be taken as guidelines simply because the outcome is desired).

This is not to say that all outcomes are irrelevant - what we must understand that if we act firmly in what we believe, the long term outcome will indeed be positive (faith). We should be at peace knowing that we did all we can, whether we win or lose is irrelevant as long as we play correctly (its how u play the game that matters, not the score?). Since our lives on this pale blue dot we call earth are merely snapshots in time, all we will see through life are short term (temporary) things, thus it is through faith alone and our moral compass through which we can ensure we are taking the right path.

Hence the key to success is always to do the best we can and leave the rest to God, and trust that in the long term, everything will turn out okay, regardless of what it seems like now.

Comments? Easier said than done, but I think quite possible.