Are You Successful?

Everybody wants to be successful in life. The first question that comes to my mind is: how do you define success? Is it becoming wealthy, famous, creating friends in high places, building a great business, or just being happy and carefree?

Whatever be your definition of success, one thing seems true. Success is something that each individual is yearning for. It’s based on your deep desire to achieve something. It arises from your inner-most feelings that you’re not where you want to be.

One can find many books that talk about how to achieve success. There are umpteen numbers of seminars and training programs on how to make money and be successful. All they do is to capitalize on the feelings of inadequacies that most people have. None of them will ever guarantee success as you are looking for. If they do, don’t believe them. Very rarely will any of them really show you how to get where you want to go.

The word ‘success’ is like a mirage - it continues to distance itself. The pursuit of success makes one fall in a never-ending trap. You work hard on something and when you get it, you are not satisfied but strive harder for the next something. Ultimately, in most cases, satisfaction never comes. You see businessmen who are billionaires – do they ever stop working for more money? Ask the so-called successful and richest people if they are happy and contented with their earnings? Most likely, the answer will be in the negative. Events over the last two years in the financial markets bear testimony to human dissatisfaction and greed. This applies to almost any field of activity – not just money.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be like my dad – have a nice job, a cozy home with decent income. After having achieved it, I felt I was better off as a kid – carefree with no responsibilities.

Does it mean that I don’t care about success? Not really – I do care about success but I would like it to be defined in simple ways that I can understand. To me, it seems that just acquiring riches or fame through any means does not mean being successful. It is not even futuristic. It means doing something that you love, in that you not only make yourself happy and contented but others too. It may be teaching that you love and want to share your knowledge with others to build them. It may be volunteering for a socially worthy cause that not only satisfies you but benefits the society. It may be the small errands that you run for others, and get in return a beautiful smile of gratitude. You could even write on topics you are familiar with – something that makes you use your talent effectively, satisfies you and may be some others too.

So, don’t worry too much about being successful in the way most people tend to define it. Redefine success as it may seem appropriate for you – a success that you can achieve on your own terms, without expensive books or paying for any external programs. Just be yourself, continue doing what you love most and pursue success that provides inner contentment and helping others in need. This may be the shortest route to being immediately successful. Is it not the sum and substance of what our ancient scriptures tell us to do?