We live in a “civil”-ization that promotes more is more. If you don’t own a newly built home or sit in the corner office; your kids don’t go to the daycare you have to enroll in before they’ve even been born or you don’t wear Ray-Bans, well, you haven’t really “made it”. And, chances are, even if that is your life, you’re probably still going to eventually feel like you’re missing something.
What gives?
It’s the success we’ve defined for ourselves. It’s everywhere. It’s your Ikea kitchen, it’s your Mercedes-Benz and it’s your Coach purse. Who we are has become what we have.
However, for as cynical as that all may sound, there really is nothing wrong with any of it. Material possessions provide enjoyment and enjoyment is an important part of life.
The question is, “are we really happy”? Are we expanding our presence and our soul? Are we filling up our Heart? Or, are we working more hours, getting more in debt, having more arguments and living in stress all because we’ve confused enjoyment with happiness?
Redefine your success
If what you do every day, from work to your personal life to the company you keep, makes you feel empty, I challenge you to ask yourself why. If what you do every day, from work to your personal life to the company you keep, makes you feel full, I still challenge you to ask yourself why.
Success doesn’t take the same appearance for us all. But, beneath the identity it creates for each of us, the common thread will be how many people you help, how many smiles you create and how many hugs you give. As much as you don’t have to own the biggest house on the block, you don’t have to sell your worldly possessions and build schools in Ghana, either. It all starts right here and right now. You are happy right here and right now. It’s a choice that you get to make no matter what you have or don’t have.
Happiness leads to success
Making the choice to be happy is truly what success is. What you do matters just as much as how and why you do it. Everyone deserves your smile. Everyone deserves your Love. Everyone deserves the amazing gift that is you. You have that to offer no matter what you do each day. You can’t buy or learn any of this in school. It’s just you! We just need to start paying attention to it instead of all the daily distractions.
Wake up in the morning and ask yourself why you’re doing whatever it is that you’re doing. Ask yourself why you can’t be your best self today and smile and support the people around you and live with Love. You don’t have to quit your job or give up eating chocolate to do any of this. But, help yourself by putting yourself in a place that supports being your true, Loving self; the person you were always intended to be. If your Heart wants you to work at a greenhouse, do it! If your Heart knows you can be a life coach, take the chance! Want to teach yoga? Get training! Just live from your Heart and from happiness. Too often, we focus on the end game. We focus on what we want our actions to result in rather than simply equating happiness to our actions. Start leading with your Heart, and I promise that everything you need will follow.
Success starts with happiness and happiness is all within you. It’s not what you can get, it’s what you can give.
be Love.
Success in someone’s career is important, as long as it is not just for money. A happy life involves love. Happiness in life is a balance of giving and receiving. By helping other people do make me happy, but isn’t this should be two way? When you help someone, don’t you want to receive the same love that you have put in? Don’t you feel sometimes it is not fair for just giving? I am just wondering.
I believe, when you give to others, you give to yourself. As you said, helping others makes you happy. That is what you get when you give, your happiness. Maybe you help someone build a shed or buy them lunch; what you receive is the wonderful feeling of your generosity.
Something I feel we also don’t often connect is how the universe keeps balance. We may have a friend that we are constantly helping or lending them money or what have you. But, that person seemingly does very little for us in return. I assure you, that we all have a person that is helping us in the same manner, as well; listening to us, buying our lunch, that we probably don’t do very much in return for. We need to let go of individualized reciprocation and see how the universe maintains the balance that what we give, we receive whether it’s from that person, a different person, ourselves or another force. 🙂