A Pathway to Inner Peace
Success has always been, and will continue to be, one of the central themes of human life. Deep inside, every human being wants to succeed in life, and nobody wants to be a failure. If we look at nature, we see that every tree wants to grow, every animal wants to survive and thrive, and all of nature is built and optimized for success. It never surrenders, it never stops; it always evolves, grows, and continues. There is a strong expansive force underneath it all. We, human beings, are part of nature. We are nature. Therefore, it is part of our nature to strive for success.
However, the world today is full of people who feel that they are far from success and that their lives are rather meaningless. They feel empty, lost, and depressed. There are always thousands of excuses: life didn’t deal them the best cards, this happened, that happened, and, as Pink Floyd sang: “Ten years have got behind you / No one told you when to run / You missed the starting gun.”
Why is this so? Why do we fight so much and thrive so little as individuals? As always, the answer lies in asking the right question. And the main question about success is not: “How do I succeed in life?” No, no. This is a very superficial question. We need to go a little further. We need to become personal and ask ourselves: “What does success mean to me? What is my life purpose?”
The What needs to be clear enough. The Why needs to be strong enough. The How will come naturally.
We need to know what success means to us in order to truly succeed. When the destination is known, a road can be found. But those who travel without knowing where they are going may travel forever without arriving. It is simple and logical. If you do not know what success means to you, you can never be truly successful.
The problem with today’s world is that there is one common definition of success: become rich and famous! Almost everybody is drawn into this trap. Since most of us have accepted this definition of success, we find ourselves in a ruthless rat race in which we are convinced that having more than others makes us more successful. More power, more money, more resources, more influence, more fame—all without asking ourselves whether this “more” is really what we desire, what we need, or what will bring us one step closer to our own definition of success.
We get lost chasing other people’s dreams. We feed a collective hell and suffer while doing so, thinking that we are creating a personal paradise, deluded into believing that all this struggle will pay off one day. The payoff has to come now – in the process itself. The journey is the goal.
True success in life is a purely personal, deeply intimate thing. It has nothing to do with society’s norms and cannot be measured from the outside. There is only one judge, and that is you. Only you can achieve, recognize, and enjoy success in your life. Therefore, to be able to do so, you need to know your destination. You need to know what success means to you.
A business owner who manages to build a great company, serves a huge number of happy customers, earns a fortune, lives in a villa, and enjoys all kinds of luxuries can be successful. A family man who lives in a rented house with his beautiful family and enjoys a simple life can be successful. An artist who creates beautiful art every day, shares it freely with the world, lives in obscurity, and cannot imagine living any other way can be successful. A housewife and mother who has chosen to take care of her husband and children, and who does so every day with pride, joy, and gratitude, can be successful.
You see, it is not about material or external achievement. It is about personal alignment. Above all, it is about sense of purpose. It is about playing the role that you are meant to play on this earth, at this moment in time and at this point in space.
And although I speak about the destination, success is not about achieving one particular goal. Success is not a one-time event. It is more complex than that. It is about the journey, because the journey and the destination cannot be separated. It is about achieving many goals, climbing many mountains, failing, standing up again, and continuing for as long as you are alive. Goals are part of the story of your personal success; they are the building blocks, but they are not success itself. Success is about becoming someone valuable in your own eyes—the kind of person you can admire.
Success is becoming so aligned with your life purpose, your dharma, and your life mission—so in tune with yourself—that life becomes almost effortless, although it may require a tremendous amount of physical, mental, and emotional effort from time to time.
Effortless does not mean that you lie down and things simply fall from the sky. No. It means that you play a very active role in realizing your true and unique potential, but because you are following your own path, there is less inner resistance and no need to fight everything or everyone around you. It feels effortless, as though you are supported by a higher force. You know it, you feel it, and this certainty gives you wings to overcome any obstacle.
Obstacles become sources of wisdom and knowledge rather than frustration. This is completely different from the struggle and effort required to achieve goals that are not truly yours—goals that are part of that illusory, generalized definition of success, a definition that does not belong to you.
You may thrive materially or socially, but if there is no satisfaction, if you are lost, and if you are living other people’s dreams instead of dreaming your own, this is closer to failure than success. But you can always decide to change direction, and every failure is simply one more step toward success if we are sincere with ourselves and willing to admit that we are not quite there yet.
What is your definition of success, and is it truly your own? Does this definition come from within or from the outside?
What are the most important things in your life? Can you say that you are successful? If not, what is truly lacking? Are you fighting against life or dancing with it? Can you still be happy and present when times are difficult?
