“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
Author unknown
Many times you will hear someone say, “When I achieve this or accomplish that, then I will be happy. They equate happiness with something they do or have. However, recent studies indicate that high achievers are considerably more likely to be people who are doing what they love, than those who are doing what they are doing simply to make money or to be a success. Most successful people are people who include happiness as a necessary ingredient for a career.
When you are happy and self satisfied you are more susceptible to learning, you’re more resilient, more creative and more willing to risk and to explore possibilities. Therefore more opportunities open up for you and your chances for finding solutions to problems and the likelihood of making connections with people and situations that lead to success are significantly increased. As all of this unfolds, you learn to trust yourself and others and your self esteem grows. As your self confidence develops, so does your decision making ability . . . and so on.
Those who live in the world of stress and worry often fill their lives up with endless social events, activities, meetings, volunteer work and business demands. At the end of the day they find themselves exhausted only to get up the next day to repeat the cycle all over again. Or they close themselves off and shut themselves down, simply out of self-protection and thereby reduce their chances to succeed.
Where are you on the well-being/happiness scale? Are you doing what makes you feel fulfilled and excited or do you find yourself dragging yourself through the day? What makes your heart sing? What would you like to be doing that would make you leap out of bed in the morning, eager to start the day and allow you to rest peacefully at night? If you are not already there, then go find it. Life is too short to be unhappy. Find your joy and success will soon be yours.
This is important to remember not only as a guide for ourselves but for raising our children as well. We tend to fill their lives with “opportunities” – soccer, play practice, music lessons, tutors, dance recitals, riding lessons and end up stressing not only ourselves but our children as well. “Hurry up and put your uniform on, get your tap shoes. We’re going to be late, where in the world did you leave your flute?” We hear ourselves say in high pitched voices filled with tension. But where is the happiness? Are our children doing what they love or are they simply doing what we think they should?
Do these activities bring value to a person’s life? Do they help build character and develop life skills? Of course they do, but when they are overdone it comes with a price. Family dinners are lost in the mad dash between sporting events, visits to see grandparents are delayed until holidays, simple down time with a good book or a walk in nature or a quiet conversation about their hopes and dreams are put “on hold”. But aren’t these just as important to their development and perhaps even more important for their well being and happiness? Perhaps if we helped them discover what they love to do – truly love and enjoy – and helped them focus on what makes them happy, then achievement will naturally follow.
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun at what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie