Authentic Success

If you ask a thousand people what success is you'll get a thousand different answers. There is only one true "authentic success". That is when you go deep inside and ask yourself what you truly love. "What could I do that would give me energy, love, happiness, smiles, laughter and optimism and without it I would die?" That's the question you should be asking. Not, "How much money can I make?" If you do what you truly love and what you were meant to do, (your mission and purpose in life) money will flow to you. Trust me on that one.

There many kinds of dying. The kind I'm talking about is the worst kind: A spiritual and emotional death. That's when your body is functioning but your soul is dead. That's when you are doing what you are "supposed to do" and "should be doing" in order to make lots of money or "ought to do" to be considered a successful person rather than asking yourself: What do I NEED to do for ME in the here and now that would cause "happiness energy" to gush forth from me twenty-four hours a day?

By preventing yourself from doing what you really love, from the guts outward, you face the reality of spiritual and emotional death. This will make you sick, physically and mentally. If you are there, I can still offer you hope.

Look at a palm tree. The uppermost part is green. Those green leaves will eventually become brown and die. At the same time the tree will be sprouting more green leaves. Life and death go on at the same time. The palm tree is not interested in the dead parts. It lets those dead leaves be the memories of what once was. The palm tree is concerned with the green, alive parts that, with its organic intelligence, keep renewing itself upward as if following some inner code. The tree is not involved with defining what success is. It is only engrossed in listening to its inner voice that guides it to its next step.

That is us too. Don't ask yourself, "What if I invest all that time, money and energy in achieving my dream, and suddenly discover it's not what I want?" That's perfect! All that you achieve will eventually die anyway. It's supposed to. The only thing constant in our lives is change. Just keep listening to that inner power that will take you to the next step. Can you imagine butterfly mourning over the fact that she is no longer a cocoon?

I love the sentence from Star Wars where Luke Skywalker's teacher appears on his shoulder during the battle with the "Evil Empire" and announces, "Luke, turn off the computer. The Force is with you."