He was the 17th President of the USA and succeeded Abraham Lincoln after his assassination. He brought with him to the white house a quiet, simple, unassuming lifestyle.
He once said, " If I am shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet".
I have learnt a lot from this selfless man and wish our leaders in Africa and Nigeria in particular would do the same. The moment your success, victories or accomplishments take away your time for the things you love, you have become a slave of success and no different than any other slave.
Can you imagine a President who still made his own clothes whilst in power even when he could afford to buy any dress in the whole wide world?
Do not let the pursuit of success take away your freedom and kidnap your liberty. Freedom is the litmus test of success.
Any success that takes away the time you have for your passion is bondage. Ultimately it will begin to demand from you everything you value including your friends and family until you are all alone living to make others happy and rich whilst you die slowly inside.
That the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)
According to Emma Sepal, a Stanford researcher and author of the new book The Happiness Track, this belief can actually hold you back.
She says – “After working in many high-achieving environments… I noticed too many people pursuing ‘success’ at a cost to themselves. They were postponing their happiness now in pursuit of success…with the idea that, when they attain success, they will be happy. Yet they were burning themselves (and others) out in the process.
When I looked at the research, I saw that–overwhelmingly–happiness is actually the secret to success. If you prioritize your happiness, you will actually be more productive, more creative, more resilient, more energized, more charismatic and influential. You will have more willpower and be more focused, with less effort.”
I think it all depends on what YOUR definition of success is.
If your goal is to win the gold at the Olympics, than you’re going to have to go through “hell”, figuratively speaking.
In peak training phases, Michael Phelps would swim about 50 miles a week. He would train for around five to six hours a day, six days a week.
Not your casual swimmer.
If you’re building a business, the commitment and sacrifice it would take to create an online business from home making a nice 6-Figure income, would be radically different than if your goal is to build a $100 Million+ business.
Now, I will have to agree that being happy is important.
Because if you’re pursuing a massive, lofty goal of building a $100 Million+ company, than you should be happy putting in the hours that it takes to achieve that, and to run a company of that magnitude with all that’s involved.
But if your goal is to have a lot of flexibility in your schedule and the freedom to work from wherever you want (which is how I’m doing it)… and make great money… then you will not be happy working around the clock, chasing the “dream” at any cost.
Ultimately it comes down to what you want to achieve. And what success and happiness really means to you.
It would be a mistake to say “I’m going to be happy when ____”.
Because that means you’re not doing what you really want to do. You should have goals, and be happy pursuing them, NOT wait until you achieve them to be happy.
Ironically, when you’re happy with what you’re doing, work seems like play, and pursuing your goals turns into journey, keeping you fully engaged and happy all along the way
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