Success vs. Joy
- III -
Moments of Joy vs Milestones of Success
A golfer friend of mine has not been so lucky. In his first eight years of playing, he was obsessed with the addiction to the sweet spot. His game took off, and he loved it. He plays to a handicap of six now but no longer enjoys a round of golf in which he ends up wrecking his card with a bad hole. Somewhere down the line the extent of his joy became converted into a number. This happened because people who surrounded him constantly imparted advice on how to succeed.
My friend became trapped in society’s insidious clasp of expectations, hype, and status. Somewhere, along the way the pure and simple joy experienced with the sweet spot faded into the background and his definition of happiness gradually became that goal of the number six.
There are many like him, who flirt with the ecstatic sweet spot that every sport offers. But they have been unable to let that sweet spot sink in and permeate through their entire being. They have not been able to savor it. Why? Because, like him, they fall prey to the expectations of society. Society does not allow them to be themselves.
Joy is internal; Success is a creation of society.
In my road toward excellence I had millions of moments of joy en route, punctuated by just a few milestones of success.
At every stage there has been a distinct choice – Success vs Joy.