You will know when you are successful in life when two things happen to you: you have no trouble sleeping and you look forward to waking up the next morning. These are the signs that you are in harmony with the universe. It’s a great feeling – even if it only lasts a day. That’s still a day more than some people get.
Ability to Face Changes
Some people think that the most successful people are those without any problems and those that never have any big changes or upheavals in their lives. This isn’t true. Changes in life are inevitable, whether they are changes for the better or changes for the worse. No one is spared from them.
Don’t worry about changes in your currently smooth, happy time. Changes are not only inevitable, they are a sign of a successful life. How you react to the changes helps you get through them and beyond them. If you can survive natural and unnatural disasters, and STILL get enough sleep at night and look forward to the next day, you have about the success that anyone can acquire.
This success is only to be determined by yourself. You can’t live up to other’s definitions of a successful life. That will lead to anxiety, stomach aches and other things that will keep you awake. In trying to satisfy everyone else, you wind up satisfying nobody. When you can satisfy your own criteria of a successful life, then you can better help those around you.
Success and Happiness
When you are successful in life, you are generally happy. Being happy is an incredibly elusive feeling, whether in the modern world or in the past. Many holy and secular books have been written about how to find happiness in your life.
There seems to be a current boom in self-help books which promise to help you become happy and successful. According to the Christian Science Monitor , self-help books made about two billion American dollars in 2007. (“Self-help Books Get the ‘Tough Love’ Treatment”, Caitlin Carpenter, 2/7/08). We seem to keep yearning for the answers to the same questions our ancestors asked thousands of years ago.
All of these books pretty much boil down to following your passion and being nice to others. A lot also mention living life in the moment and not dwelling too much on the past or worrying about the future. You meet each moment as it comes. Although you can’t avoid bad things happening in your life, you don’t stay stuck in the past and move on. You know when that happens when you get enough sleep and don’t dread the next day.
Theoretically, then, even this definition of a successful life might not work for you. If you have the inner knowledge to realize this, then you are well on your way to leading a successful life.