It was in a game of table tennis when a guy told me that his father had once told him, "Don't play seriously. Play sincerely."
I have many instances in my life when I noticed this attitude, with me & many other, of seriousness while doing things, playing games etc. Years back, when I used to play table tennis madly & addictively, during my peak in the game and before an unfortunate injury that forced me to quit the game, I used to get so serious of losses & get frustrated of my mistakes. In a way, it's that frustration that actually resulted in my injury.
Why do we play games? For recreation. For fun. To enjoy. If one is really into the game, then probably to improve upon one's skills in that game. Every game is a kind of practice. Fair enough. Then why get serious, frustrated, off-mood when we don't play well? Isn't that killing the purpose of us playing games?
In real life, quite so often it happens that when we do things, we fool ourselves by getting serious about it. When things go wrong, we get angry. That's because we just get emotional of the outcomes, that blind us from seeing the real purpose of we doing things! I play because I enjoy. If I am getting frustrated while playing, then I am not enjoying. Then why play? If somethings makes you angry, then why do it in the first place?
And these so called "serious people" often put blame on someone or something when things go wrong. They surely know how sincere they were in their deeds. Next time when someone tells you that he's serious, you better laugh sincerely. Yeah... I am serious!
Joker said it right in the movie "The Dark Knight" - "Why so serious?". He thoroughly enjoyed being evil. He was a sincere villain.
