You Have A Wrong Idea Of Success. And It’s Killing You.

The word ‘success’ polluting the Internet and people’s mind.

LET’S START WITH A QUICK MEDITATION

Before beginning, let’s do a simple thing. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Trust me, it’s important.

Ready?

Breathe In. Breathe Out.

Done that?

Now, we are good to go. Because what we will share in the following will encourage you to redefine success and happiness in your life. It will convey to you a message to stay calm and use your intellectual faculties for every decision you make in the future.

So, let’s keep an open mind and start delving deep to see how this ‘success’ thing is polluting our minds.

A STUPID QUESTION!

A few months ago, I was having a little chat with one of my colleagues and his best friend. After office, we went to a restaurant, ordered some snacks and started chitchat about 9 to 5 work life.

My colleague’s friend Jhon (alias) works at a US-based company, earns a handsome monthly paycheck, and lives with his wife and son. To me, this is cool. You have a job that pays well, you live with your family in peace — that’s what a man can ask from life. You must be happy about it. But Jhon, maybe, not that happy as he was continuously discussing the ways to earn more money.

My colleague and Jhon were talking, smiling, and searching for better ways to earn more money and become successful. I was listening to them quietly. They were looking excited, their faces were gleaming with the hope of becoming a successful person of their dream by earning more until I asked Jhon a STUPID question.

After listening to their different money-making ideas suddenly I asked, Okay, Jhon, let me take you from this. Can you tell me when you will consider yourself a successful person? Tell me what you want from life? But, please be truthful to your answer.

My stupid (!) question shocked both of them to the core. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Then, Jhon without giving me a reasonable answer dived into another topic, telling me that I am quite a serious person.

IS EVERYONE SUCCESSFUL AND HAPPY AROUND YOU?

• Oh, she is so hot, good-looking, successful. I wish I could be like her.
• Mr. Ray has a Private Jet. My goodness!
• Really! You’ve a billion followers on youtube?OMG!
• What the heck I have done with my life. This fellow has everything — money, fame, girls.
• Why my life sucks? Everyone around me looks so happy.

You know, we could go on and on — like there is no end. When you see someone with the things you don’t have, you come to a quick conclusion that this person is successful and happy than you.

But wait, you deserve success and happiness more than anyone else. You worked hard all through your life. You have done everything right, at least, tried hard to be on the track. And, you don’t know what’s gone wrong.

If you think so and feel deprived of a good life, then, I have a question for you, a stupid(!) question.

When you see the word success or hear it in any motivational content anywhere, what’s the first thing appears on your mind?

Is it a whole lot of money, a mansion, a few dashing cars, a hot & sexy partner to make your colleagues jealous? Is it the power to control people around you? Is it fame that your name should spread like air and cover the whole world?

THINK. THINK. THINK

Because that’s the ONE THING you need to practice more to UNDERSTAND life in its totality.

Search for your idea of success and happiness. From where it came to you?

Have you got it from your role model, your boss at the office, from a fashion icon, movie star, from your favorite novelist, from your parents, from youtube, social platforms, Internet, or from the people who have lots of things you don’t have right now?

This search is crucial because we compare ourselves with the person who seems perfect to our eyes. We count what we have and what that other person possesses. Then, we consciously try to be more like that person, to reach his standard.

WHY WE’RE SO OBSESSED WITH ‘SUCCESS’?

Success is nowadays an ILLUSION made by media to sell products and services.

The word ‘success’ sells better.

You are obsessed with all these success-things because each and everyday media tells you to do so. It shows your favorite model’s lifestyle, informs you about a newly launched super-car, shows you how people with little or no effort made tons of money, provokes you to purchase this or that — to change your life completely.

It continuously exhibits people, professions, products, services in an impractical way creating fake-trends. Media tells you — if you sign up, you will become more successful than others.

Your colleagues did that, why not you? Your friends purchased this, why not you? — Media continues to poke you until you serve their purpose.

So, here comes the next important thing.

Never pollute your mind with what media portrays as cool and must-have to change your life and become successful.

You don’t need to become a supermodel, bestseller writer, astronaut, youtube celebrity, Instagram sensation, or else to become successful and happy.

THINK AND ACT ACCORDINGLY

Have no doubt about the following:

If you are in good health and have — a roof on your head, enough monthly income to support your family, a good relationship with your near ones, then, you are already a successful person. Just, you don’t REALIZE it.

Success doesn’t mean that you have to change the world, go on a voyage and discover new lands, make tons of money, have a billion followers, appear on BBC, have your photo stamped on Time’s cover page, or attain the power to control people and politics.

No. None of these defines success. If you do all of these, or you don’t any — both are completely okay.

Don’t be farsighted. Value your present moment. Don’t live in the past, or in the future. Be conscious about both, but don’t live in them.

Think positive. Think practical. Think and act accordingly.

Don’t be a victim of media advertisements like the people around you. They may reckon you as ‘uncool’, but believe me, they are the real ‘uncool’ ones. Because they never use their brain to decide what they need, rather they depend on media to tell them what they should do and how they should act.

LISTEN TO ME, AND LISTEN WELL

Your problems are your own. No one can understand it better than you. No one can solve it for you.

Not even Coldplay with their song Fix You.

But the good thing is you can do it by yourself, with a little understanding, revisiting, and re-analyzing the past choices you made.

Be sure about one thing. Success has nothing to do with just accumulating wealth, earning more money, attention, fame, followers.

Success is to solve your day-to-day problem efficiently and live a peaceful life. In the end, that is what truly matters.

The problem can be a bad marriage, heartbreak, financial instability, bad relationship with parents, mental uneasiness, depression, addiction, bad habits, or anything that impedes your peace of mind.

Don’t allow media to ruin your life. Grab the gear, take control.

BUT … THEY SAY, I MUST CHANGE THE WORLD

Really, you want to? People in the name of ‘changing the world’ have made it already a dangerous place to live. Look around you, don’t you see it?

Who told you to change the world? Just change a few things in your life — keep a positive mindset, use common sense, and most importantly, use your intellectual faculties to make decisions in life. Don’t follow and imitate others blindly.

This will be enough to change the world around you.

Thank you for spending your time here.

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