What is true Success?
I would bet real money that there is no human being walking on planet earth who has not asked themselves that question. If you are a hardworking son of the soil (or daughter) just trying to keep up with life, working as hard as you possibly can, you must go home some days and think: Is this it? Is this what a century of living is going to result in?
And it’s not as if we are demeaning the act of earning a living. God created man with a stomach that must be fed and a body that must rest in a building (ideally:—)also so that extreme weather, wild animals, and even people do not take advantage and diminish him. Above all, I guess, because we all came from a place so comfortable and with no pain, we seem to gravitate towards comfort, convenience, even pleasure.
But these things are not naturally available to us. We are no longer in the Garden of Eden where we could pick any fruit and walk naked. We are in a world where, just to live, we must sustain ourselves and those who depend on us. It’s a tough call, people.
So, we build ambition, believing that when we obtain our accreditations and earn more money, life will get better—we will feel more fulfilled. And yes, life does get better with money and resources, and it can be fulfilling for a time. But like an addiction, after a while, we start looking for something else, or someone else. We start desiring more.
Even the person who has achieved levels of financial success they could never have imagined still gets to a point where they feel broke and broken inside. Something is missing, something lacking. But what is it that we are really looking for?
I dare say the answer is success, but not as defined by human standards and not measured by anything physical.
If you have ever been employed, or you are a service or product provider, you might recognize that little feeling you get inside when your boss, client, or even parent says to you, Well done. You did that well. Even better when it comes with a cash bonus or reward on top 🙂
This should tell you that we can only feel truly fulfilled if we are doing exactly what our Creator sent us here to do.
Let me use an example to explain. Assume God put a gift and talent inside you to understand nature and biology in a way the rest of us cannot—because you were sent to figure out the cure for cancer, HIV, or Ebola. But you decide you like drawing better. You might still be good at it, and every drawing you make—even if it sells millions—will still leave you feeling like something is missing.
Or suppose your gift was art, and you were meant to draw architectural designs of cities that would define the new world. But you decided to become a doctor instead, because you got all A’s and distinctions and doctors have better job security.
Now, the examples I’m giving are of people who are actually doing something with their lives. But the worst case is those who live depressed and thus do nothing. Those ones are literally living in hell on earth.
What is true success then? We’ll explore that in the next post. But I leave you with a little homework—a question you should take a pen and paper and answer tonight.
It’s a question my uncle asked me when I was young, and it changed my perspective on destiny:
If you were given a blank cheque to write all the money you wanted, with all your needs taken care of and no need to work for money, what is the one thing you would do? In short, what is that one thing you can do without pay?
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