Becoming Successful

An awful thing people tend to do when establishing new relationships is ask “What do
you do”? I think it’s an overall umbrella question to mean, tell me about yourself, who
are you, what do you enjoy, how do you spend your time. But it usually comes out as
“What do you do” (For a living/ to make ends meet). And this is unfortunate, as people
are not identified by their financial abilities. People as created by God are much deeper
than, how do earn your money to support yourself. God created us with gifts, both
personal and spiritual, but then we tend to forget about Gods purpose for us, and we
lean on the purpose expected of us by this world.

Doctors and lawyers tend to fit the profile of being an upstanding respectable person
with few flaws, simply because they were drawn or forced into a certain profession.
People in society refer to doctors and “Doctor Smith” etc, but they don’t refer to the mail
person as “Mail carrier Smith”. And as such many people come to expect this behavior.
Respect is established based on title and training verses admirable characteristics.
Personally, I know a few people in the medical and legal professions that have stacks of
demons in their closets, but money has often buried those burdens, because we live in
a system driven by money, not honesty, care or compassion.

Our media defines success for us by creating an idea that if you don’t have the newest,
latest and most shiny object, then you are not successful. Which is actually the farthest
from the truth. Success follows happiness, and happiness follows peace. Peace of
mind, body and spirit. Even the wealthiest people have problems, usually the worst
problems, the problems that money can’t buy, like relationships, family, honest
friendships. Life is supposed to be difficult, it is supposed to be challenging, and when
it’s not, we find ourselves in a depressed state of mind, and depression often leads to
poor choices such as food, alcohol, and drug use, which then leads to disease and
illness.

Success is finding peace in life, and peace in mind, and this is not possible when we
turn material items and technology into “idols”. Idols can be anything from money, cars,
clothes, even status is an idol. The worst thing about idols is how difficult it is to give up
once they have their claws in you. Gambling, watching sports, even watch a “favorite”
show can become an idol.

Success is not in your bank account, or abilities. I once heard a podcaster talk about
how even the most famous athletes are shunned if they are injured and can no longer
“perform/ entertain”. We don’t “love” the athlete or celebrity because we don’t even
know them, even more so, they don’t know us.

I have never found interest in “following/ monitoring” someone that would not do the
same back to me. I never excelled at sports because I always (and still) see it as
nothing more than a game, not much more than “hopscotch”. All sports are children’s
games that people spent their entire life trying to perfect to the point of substantial
income.

In order to heal humanity, we must begin healing within ourselves. Discover that real
success comes from happiness and this emotion is internal and discovered during true
peace. Life is tough, if it were easy what would be the point. However, real tests and
tribulations are often easier to overcome when we don’t have to go about it alone.

Peace.
Santiago