Success & Money as a measure of Happiness

Money can't buy you happiness.

You might have read the above written phrase somewhere on social media.

Generally when we speak about success of a particular person, the first question which comes in our mind is that how much money does he earn. Does he own a vintage vehicle and a six-figure bank account? A ten-car garage mansion with some servants roaming around? He might be living a lavishing life style! Right. If all these boxes are checked, only then we consider him a successful man. But me might be mistaken here.

There can be different definitions of success depending upon how a person perceives it. For most of the people, success encloses attainment of wealth, honors, positions and such other things which can lift one's status in the society. And all these things in turn are expected to lead an illustrious life.

Unfortunately, in this modern-capitalist world, money is the only indicator of success for most of the people. We live in a society where a well-endowed person is contemplated as superior from his peers. If you look around yourself, you'll get to know that a vast majority of people only consider money as a solution to their problems. Though, to an extent it is true that money has the power to buy almost everything in this world. But when it comes to contentment, success is next to none.

The parameters our society has set to measure the success and happiness are doing no good to us. There are thousands of people who don't lead a luxurious life-style, still they are living happily because they don't give primary importance to these materialistic aspects. They don't care about their status excessively. Their cultural values hold more worth than money merely. Their families and friends comprise major parts of their lives. They might not have earned huge amount of money but they have that tranquility and satisfaction in their lives which isn't there for so many upper class people.

The prime goal of a person's life is to be happy here and afterwards. Being rich or wealthy doesn't necessarily mean that you are happy as well. Your soul needs to be satisfied, not your body. So the true measure of success is how much happy you are in your life.

Sincerely speaking, there is no single person in life who does not endeavor to be happy and enjoy optimum degree of peace. These are fundamental and inherent human requirements that definitely form larger part of success in life. If you happen to be the richest dude in globally, there is no guarantee that you'll be the happiest as well.

If we take a look around ourselves, we'll find people who are earning in millions but still they are not happy with their lives. Why is this so? Is this because they don't have any expensive cars to drive or beautiful houses to live in? No, certainly not. In fact, they enjoy all the luxuries of life which an ordinary man can only fantasize. They have all the success they could wish for. The only thing they don't possess is peace of mind. They spend their lives figuring out different ways of earning money, ignoring the fact that money isn't everything. Money can buy you power. Money can buy you fame. Money can even buy you time. But unfortunately, money can't buy you satisfaction of mind.

This doesn't mean at all that we should stop striving for a better life-style. There is always a need for enhancement in life whether it be in your knowledge, skill set or your status in the society. The only thing we need to fix is our mindset and our approach towards the concept of money and happiness. The way we interlink these notions is wide off the mark.

People who are surrounded by authentic love from their families and friends stand a better chance to succeed in life compared to moneyed individuals who are world apart from others. In addition, the elements of measuring success in life are very dynamic and change with the passage of time.

Some million years ago when man was still living in a cave, the ultimate success was most likely the size of the cave a person possessed. But the times have changed now, and so does the people and the goals they wish to attain. In the past there were only a few fields of work. But with the passage of time, every profession has outgrown itself immensely which has created a huge number of opportunities. More opportunities have led to temptation of success and hence more money-materialism.

Conclusion

The debate about money and success has been of great interest for a while now and is everlasting. In short, if we sum up the above discussion, I think we need to probe ourselves about these important questions. Are we really happy? Is this the world we were meant to live in? What is the real purpose of our lives? Being loved or excelling as a wealthy entrepreneur? If we can ponder over these questions, we will probably realize that even after being rich and massively moneyed, all of us still desire to be loved and accepted.