I almost called this entry "Creating Success" but success has a business conotation.  Success is just a path to happiness and that may be different for each of us.  For some, success can be their own private jet, for others success may be getting to heaven and for still others success could mean raising wonderful children who give something back.  For most of us I would imagine that success is a little of all of these things in different amounts.  But regardless of how you define success one thing is for sure it does not just happen, it is created.

 

My favorite group is a country band called Sugarland and their incredible lead singer Jennifer Nettles.  My favorite song from them is called "Something More".  The theme of this song is that there has to be something more than just punching a time clock.  My favorite line from that song is:

Here is the problem.  In order to "create" happiness you must figure out with some specificity what you want.  You can't be vague about it.  Most people go through their lives not really figuring this out.  They sort of roam from one phase of their life to another, very often complaining about their situation all along the way.  I remember working for a company several years ago and the moral was horrible.  During lunch everyone would sit around and talk about how bad the place was and how much they hated getting up in the morning and all the stupid decisions that were being made by management.  That was 15 years ago and many of those complainers are still there right now.  For many people change is too high a price to pay for happiness.  My father use to have a factory job in a bottling plant.  The jobs on the plant floor were mindless and boring.  Stacking boxes on pallets, rotating bottles on the line and the big job was quality control (cracked bottle spotters).  My father took me there at the age of 12 and he said "Do you know the difference between those people out there and me?" I said "no".  He said "They are satisfied, I am not".  My father wanted something more and he wasn't afraid of change and hard work if that is what it took. I think it is dangerous to confuse being satisfied with being happy.

 

Once you really figure out what you want your life to be then everything after that gets simple.  But you really have to be sure that what you think you want is REALLY what you want.  You may achieve your happiness goals only to realize that you had it wrong.  Even that is better than not taking steps at all.  You can always re-adjust and go at it again.  Sometimes I think this is really what the word wisdom is all about.  Knowing what really will make you happy. 

 

So, now that you have really done some soul searching and you have figured out what it is you want then you must ask yourself this basic question:  "Will the things I am doing now allow me to create what I want?"  You will know the answer to this question in seconds.  If your answer is yes then get really focused and passionate about what you are doing and drive toward your goals.  If your answer is "no" then you MUST do something else lest you wind up at the end of your life being "satisfied" but not "happy".