It is easy to get confused between success and happiness, often mistaking them be similar.
'Success' is getting what we want.
'Happiness' is wanting what we have got.
Success is a product of striving, and every striving is a journey. Journeying is like excellence, we never really arrive, for beyond each peak we conquer, another stands awaiting conquest.
Happiness on the other hand, is a state of being, it only needs an awakening, and a realisation.
In spite of the individual possessing the capacity and potential to be happy, we rarely permit ourselves the privilege of being happy. This is because Man the individual subordinates himself to Man the social creature and is thus doomed to be unhappy.
Constant criticism of and dissatisfaction with what we have by the individual trying to live to the standards and expectations of others and of society at large, finds it difficult if not almost impossible to be happy.
Happiness flowers within us, when we let go of expectations, and simply wallow in existence.
A first step is an appreciation of, and gratitude for what we are and what we have.
Who we are, will emerge in due course of time.
Happiness is most visible during the stage of childhood. Where innocence envelops us. The child unperturbed by the past and unconcerned about the future lives in the present. That is why children are happy just enjoying the passage of time.
This characteristic of children is worth emulating, while we teach our children about life, they are teaching us what life is all about.
