Success and Happiness: Can We Have Them Both? – Part 1
No matter if rich or poor, educated or unread, no matter religion or nationality, people actively pursue happiness throughout their adult life. We all want to be happy and we try so hard to get there. It is the most common goal on the planet throughout history.
The Pursuit of Happiness
Today we have become used to thinking, “I will be happy when I reach this or that position at work. I will be happy when I have more money. I will be happy when I get married to this or that person.” And we strive to fulfill these goals, performing the necessary actions, but as time passes the flavor of happiness in our lives becomes even vaguer. Even if we feel happy for a moment, the state fades away like a ghost, and we once again start chasing the next achievement in order to feel happy again. We habitually race for success in order to (eventually) become happy.
Success, therefore, has become one of the most talked about subjects these days because we believe that it brings happiness. We have assigned a lot of importance to success, yet reality shows that, in fact, success in itself doesn’t hold much real value for us. Studies regarding our physiology show that it has very little impact on our lives when compared with that of happiness.
The Engine of Life
In my studies of ancient spiritual systems, I discovered a common and united perspective; they all say that the inherent state of each and every person is one of overwhelming and deeply fulfilling happiness. The engine of life, they say, IS happiness. And the one that is able to discover this secret that is embedded in the foundation of his being, will always be successful in life.
I was wondering, could it really be that we are looking at these aspects of life upside down? Because, if the causality is actually the other way around, we are going against the flow of life itself, the immediate consequence of this error being that the more we try to push towards success, the more we dry out the happiness. The close resemblance of this scenario to our experience of striving for success in order to be happy, is clear.