Happiness is perhaps one of the only destinations for which the map is created by our own unique experiences. As we grow up, we are taught to believe that life is a choice between success and happiness. We begin to think that in order to attain any level of success, we need to give up being happy. On the other hand, we believe that if we want to enjoy life, be carefree and happy, then we should not expect success as well.
The truth is, success and happiness are two sides of the same coin. Learning to be passionate about the work it takes to achieve your goals will inevitably lead to success. Similarly, doing something you love and attaining success as a result can be your key to happiness.
The best way to achieve both success and happiness is by improving your ability to make plans and sticking to them. Planning is often misunderstood to be a meticulous direction of everything you do. However, the best plans start by first fixing achievable goals, then by defining the best way to achieve the goals and overcome the possible obstacles we may encounter while doing so. A very important part of making plans is considering whether both the goals set and the method by which we would like to achieve them are suitable for us. For example, this might involve thinking about how the process of achieving the goals will affect us and how we would feel when we have finally achieved what we wanted to.
Recently, I discovered that some people use the behaviour of animals to predict the weather. It is believed that cows lie down when it is about to rain, birds fly closer to the ground when we are about to experience poor weather, and sharks can swim into deeper waters to take cover just before a hurricane hits the surrounding area. While some of these are just myths, it shows that making plans for the future is one of the most basic elements of the behaviour of all living things. Making use of the information we have in the present to change some things in our lives can help us secure the future we want.
It is true that the path to success can often be draining, and a seemingly attractive life can be led by unhappy people. A good indicator of whether you will be happy with your position in life and with the success you attain in the future is by making a simple comparison. By comparing all the things you need to sacrifice with the satisfaction you gain while you complete each step in reaching your destination, you can decide how to shape your plans to create the best future for yourself.
Edwin Louis Cole, an author, once said, “There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true.” However, the people in this world who can both plan with hope and dream with practicality are the ones who are likely to find themselves both happy and successful at the same time.
If there comes a time when you are forced to believe that life is a choice between success and happiness and that no amount of planning can change this fact, remind yourself that you might not always be able to control what life brings you, but you can control what you do with those opportunities and how well you do the things you need to do. Both success and happiness follow those who can teach themselves to plan well and yet remain unaffected by those times when life simply does not go as planned.
