Success[1][1]


People believe that success is at the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold is what keeps them going.  They continue with self-denial and sacrifice, knowing that at the end of it all, they will see and taste and feel success. But what happens when they find the pot of gold and still aren’t happy? Why do they arrive at what they believe is the ultimate destination and, yet, are still left wanting?

Success is an admirable goal, but it really doesn’t matter all that much what your definition of success is – whether it is money or self-esteem or recognition or winning the race or just being in the marathon.

Therein lies the answer to the dilemma of arriving at the end of the race for success and still feeling half empty. Sure, you can also see yourself as being half full, but nonetheless – you are still only half of something. The completeness you worked and sacrificed for is still missing. Only this time, you paid the entire price.

Maybe you sacrificed your youth or your free spirit or your family or your health in the pursuit of happiness, only to have it elude you once again. While on the path to success, you felt good and vibrant, full of life because you hoped for what was yet to come – the end of the rainbow.

They say that it’s impossible to actually reach the end of rainbow. It’s just a tool of the mind designed to keep us going, aiming higher, becoming more than we ever imagined that we could be. Is it just a phantom? All this time we’ve been chasing nothing but the product of the imagination?

There is a lesson to be learned in this because we were not planted here to stumble around blindly, never finding meaning and purpose for our earthly sojourn.

Everybody’s chasing success with a certainty that when they achieve it, happiness – like a morning glory – will reveal her coat of colors at the dawn of success. Why don’t they see what’s really happening? The answer is so obvious. But sometimes we don’t see truth – even when we stumble over it.

There is a story about a man sitting in a parked car waiting for his wife who is in the market picking up a few things. When she emerges from the market, she lifts their baby out of the grocery cart and hands him to her husband who receives him, gives him a kiss and straps the baby into his car seat.

When they are all in the car, the husband turns to his wife sitting next to him, gently frames her face with his large hands and kisses her. The wife smiles and kisses him again with a little peck on the cheek. The husband starts the engine and they drive away.

You may eventually achieve what you believe to be success. But if you don’t find happiness on your journey to success, you won’t recognize it when you get there.

As author Wayne Dyer once wrote:

“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”