Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.
Let that sink in for a bit. The mind will always forget the trials and tribulations that you have undergone yet the heart will always remember the feeling of those trials and tribulations. That is the difference between happiness and success.
Success is a notion that is determined by the mind through conditioning by peers and society. Yet true success is seldom achieved if not linked to happiness. They are not mutually exclusive yet only are so depending on how they are obtained. There are not many successful people in any walks of life that are truly happy. This is because their perceived happiness is based solely on the ” getting ” of what ” the mind wanted.” You can have all the money in the world to buy everything you have ever wanted, yet this still will not give you joy or peace. Yet on the corollary, you can have nothing and yet be content and happy, as whatever you wanted no matter how basic the desire you get it.
This is clearly evident in those that continue to get more and more of what they must have or want based on their notion of societal status and position and bragging rights. This is founded by ego. The more they get, the more they want, the more they get what they want the bar standard rises to the next level. The ladder continues up and up with getting what you want and calling it a successful trip. However if you spend the entire time in successful pursuits and missing out on the simplest of things like a hello to a stranger, smelling a flower’s fragrance, holding your child in your arms at bedtime, meeting a friend, spending time someone you love, what is the point of getting what you want. Now if the about wants are things that you get, well that is called happiness.
Most successful people have neither the time nor the inclination to slow down long enough to smell the flower or recall the hugs from the children. If you read their biographies, they are filled with “successful stories” but its not what they achieved that you should read, yet what they have omitted to mention, that is to be read. The simplistic things that bring you happiness. They never note that in their books. this does not mean we should give up our ambitions, dreams or goals or careers. Far from it. In fact do more, achieve more, strive more. Yet there will be a time when, you yourself will feel the push for wanting more, and it wont be for success, it will be for happiness. And so the cycle restarts.
I have been on both sides of this spectrum. I have been fortunate. I have literally bought everything I can think of for hobbies, and useless trophies of apparent success in an effort to fuel my ego to believe that I am successful. It wasn’t until I discovered that I had broken the bank to find the illusion of success that was being sustained by my mirage of an ego that I woke up. The lustful thirst to possess more. Thank fully I woke to my senses before it was too late, and been on the quest for happiness. It has been a great journey to understand both. My journey is not over. I suspect neither is yours.
Success is about speeding up. Happiness is about slowing down.
……………
I love you
