Success vs. Joy
- LXVIII -
Follow Your Heart
Success is a measure imposed by society. I assert that joy is the surest way to success. But joy certainly does not necessarily follow success. I do not, at this stage in life seek rewards such as fame and power. I know it is easy for me to say this after having achieved what I have. But there are many who are programmed to believe that a higher monetary reward is the best – if not the only yardstick to measure success.
Some of us become programmed to think that winning is all-important. I don’t agree with what the famous American football coach Vince Lombardi said, “winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” Billy Shankly, a very successful manager of the English soccer team, Liverpool, had his own version – “Football isn’t life or death. It’s much more important than that.”
This programming to win has been embedded by parents, teachers, bosses, role models, and spouses. Yet, somewhere, one realizes that what they are doing is not giving them any joy; that adding to one’s bank balance is not the same as enriching the soul. People with staying power are the seekers of joy. I do not need to meet them but can recognize them through books listing their accomplishments. They have been consistent for years. It is easy to distinguish them from the seekers of success.