Happiness is the Key to Success, Not the Other Way Around.

Summary

Happiness, rather than success, is the key to a fulfilling life, as it fosters energy, creativity, and genuine connections.

Abstract

The article emphasizes that happiness is a prerequisite for true success, contrary to the common belief that success leads to happiness. As a Positive Psychologist, the author has observed that beyond meeting basic needs, material wealth and fame do not significantly contribute to increased happiness. Instead, human connections, loving relationships, emotional safety, and a sense of purpose are crucial for contentment. The author suggests that happiness enhances performance in all life areas by boosting energy, creativity, and social engagement, ultimately leading to greater success.

Opinions

The author posits that beyond a certain threshold, additional income does not correlate with increased happiness.
Fame and success can lead to mistrust and difficulties in forming authentic relationships, potentially resulting in isolation.
Meeting core emotional and relational needs is essential for happiness.
Happiness is linked to better performance in various aspects of life, including work and personal endeavors.
The article suggests that focusing on achieving happiness is more beneficial for overall success than pursuing success for happiness.
The author believes that happiness is not just an outcome of success but a critical foundation for it.

Happiness is the Key to Success, Not the Other Way Around.

As a Positive Psychologist, a lot of my time and attention has been focused on what makes people happy, and what factors contribute to “a happy life” — and the answer might just surprise you.

In our consumer-centric society, we tend to associate happiness and success with things, money, power, and possessions — but guess what, evidence shows that once our income is increased to the level that meets all of our basic needs, meaning that we can easily pay our rent, bills, buy food and necessary medications, etc, after this point, money does not increase happiness.

The same can be said for fame which is another metric by which we tend to gauge “success” — we look at famous people who are rich with many houses and think how lucky they are, how happy they must be with all of their wealth. Yet, despite all of their success, money, and fame, a large number of Hollywood stars regularly end up in rehab or suffering with their mental health and/or addiction.

Why do money, fame, and success not always equal happiness as we would expect?

The answer to this is simply because, in order to experience true contentment and happiness, human beings have basic needs that must be met such as human connection, positive loving relationships, emotional safety, security, and a sense of purpose.

Fame, success, and wealth do not guarantee that these needs are being met, in fact, it can actually put people at greater risk of being used, manipulated, abused, or betrayed if others (lacking a moral compass) think that they can capitalize off these very attributes.

How many times have we heard from attractive, young, famous, wealthy stars that they fear they can’t trust people or that they are suspicious of people's intentions which therefore makes forming real authentic relationships difficult? This can ultimately result in the star feeling isolated and alone in a kind of gilded cage.

So far, in my own opinion, from my personal and professional experience, what I can say is that in order to be truly successful, happiness must come first.

For example, whenever we are happy we have more energy and enthusiasm, we are more creative and more social, and we tend to do better at anything we choose to do.

Therefore, in my opinion, you are far more likely to be successful in every area of your life if you are happy…

From positive emotion flows stamina, motivation, ideas, and an enhanced ability to connect and inspire others.

So if I was going to give any advice (which I don’t do lol) I would say if you want to be successful at anything, get happy — focus on getting your core needs met and this will help you to be successful at everything in your life!

Stay Gucci,

ALL CLAPS WELCOME lol

Catherine x

DISCLAIMER: This article does not intend to diagnose, treat, advise, or cure any medical condition and is intended for entertainment purposes only. Please always seek the advice and treatment of a medical doctor for any health issue.