Does Happiness Come From Success?

Everyone want to be successful in their life. The success that usually associated with financial freedom.

My mom once said, “A success definition is when people around you know that you already have much money.”

Is she right?

Does success mean that we don’t have to worry about our financial level anymore?

She may be right. In her point of view, she’s right. Maybe it’s her friend talk about their son who already works in a multinational company that made her seen that successful people is the one with all the money.

Then, what is the relation between money and happiness?

“Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.” -Leo Rosten

I don’t know who Leo Rosten is, I looked up his quotes on Google. But he has a point. The point is our financial condition doesn’t relate to our happiness.

Then where are the happiness comes from?

Is it comes from our success?

According to what my mom said about success, it can’t be the reason why we feel happy. If our success only means that we have a huge amount of money, we won’t feel happy.

But if we think that success means to achieve high target by doing what we have passionate about, It may be a different story.

In my opinion, to achieve success, the target of doing what we passionate about has to be high. At least, high enough to inspire us to keep doing what we have passionate about.

Passion is like a small eternal flame in our heart. It won’t be extinguished but can be weakened. It can be weak enough so that we can’t feel it anymore. To makes us feel the heat again, it needs oxygen to get stronger.

High target is like the oxygen for our fire. It keeps our passion burned. If someone says that passion is a fuel to our life, then high target is a fuel to our fuel to our life. Yeah, it’s complex.

Then, does it mean that success can bring happiness?

I can answer it with a yes or a no. According to what does success means to you. If you believe in what my mom believe, I can guarantee you that being successful won’t make you happy. But if you do what you love to achieve your high target, your journey to success will make your life happier. Because happiness is a journey, not a target.