Success Might Not Be What You’re Really Looking For

“Why should you know your purpose in life?” My professor asked. No one raised their hands, and she called me.

Trusting my instincts, I answered, “It is to know what you are aiming for.”

I know I have a goal, and it is guided by purpose. When accomplished, it turns into success. Growing up I have somehow been taught that success is measured by wealth, popularity, social status. We aim for earthly possessions like it’s the only thing that makes us alive– a standard of living, a basis of happiness, an indication of success. But noticing successful people, I guess success is more than that.

Successful people almost have it all. They have reached the top, feeling successful by just material possessions alone. But it is when they have just reached the point wherein irony plays its part;

It’s when they have everything they have ever chased for, yet they feel empty.

Jim Carrey has said that getting rich, famous, and everything we’ve dreamed of is not the answer. Successful people have somehow felt lost, but have found themselves from being lost; lost while wandering as they try to seek for happiness until they found what they are really after— joy.

For happiness is having the comforts of life, joy, on the other hand, means giving up our own comforts for the sake of others, and it is always more than happiness, more than about ourselves.

William Shakespeare said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” Which is why we find joy in giving; we find joy in sacrificing our happiness whenever we choose not what is easy but what is right; we find joy in working hard for others; we find joy in helping even when it is not convenient.

But if given unwillingly, it is not joy. It is stated from a scripture I have read:

What makes such sacrifice a joy rather than a burden is love.

Successful people may be known to be tough, but the real ones are those who choose to love.

Successful people did not become successful by taking the easier path and leaving the difficult one untouched. These are not even the people who keep on fighting and had all things worked out.

Rather, successful people are the ones who have fought a thousand different times and have failed a thousand more.

Successful people know their purpose and it is about more than themselves. They are somehow the best but are not perfect.

They are powerful but vulnerable. They have felt lost and empty but they never give up.

Most of all, successful people are sometimes the ones who are lacking but have found the joys in life through loving. At the end of the day, it is what we are all after.