Success vs. Peace

Most people focus on success -- whether it's financial or otherwise. That seems to make sense, but really, if you look deeper -- and deeper still -- you'll notice something pretty strange.

People don't actually want success. What they want is the "stuff" that success can bring. And therefore, they simply figure that success will get them those things. Those things may be tangible -- a better house, a nicer car, a diamond necklace -- or it can be intangible things -- the experience of travelling to exotic locations, the "fun" of not having to work for an evil boss...and the list goes on.

But again, success is not actually the goal -- it is the means.

However, people regularly confuse the two! That's why successful people almost always -- if not ALWAYS -- discover that there is something very unpleasant about their "success" -- something missing.

What's missing is not the success. After all, success is there -- so that, obviously, can't be the "thing" that is missing.

What's missing is the peace that, "way back when," that success was supposed to lead towards.

But because this was forgotten, the success became and end unto itself. And that -- naturally -- compelled successful people to behave in unsuccessful ways. Oh sure, they may have increased their success on a superficial level, but on a spiritual or emotional or even plain old fashioned ethical level, they were not being successful at all.

Remember: you can follow the law of your country to the letter, but that in itself doesn't mean that you're following the spiritual laws of the universe. You can "legally cheat" your way to success by exploiting people, but hoarding information, by manipulating, by 100 of other things that are technically legal -- but they are against the laws of spirituality. And so, obviously -- patently -- a so-called "successful person" who has violated these laws will not under any circumstances enjoy their success. They can't -- it's not that they don't want to. They DESPERATELY want to, and they can't understand why, despite all of their success, they are profoundly miserable.

It's because they have forgotten that the real goal of it all was peace. Inner peace -- and then, as a by-product of that, outer peace, too.

When you forget the goal, you confuse the means with the end.

The measure of success is peace. Not the "peace at any price" kind of peace -- life will give you challenges, and sometimes, you will need to stand up confidently and boldly. You may need to take a stand -- defend a principle -- make a point -- right a wrong.

Peace doesn't mean non-action. Peace means acceptance of reality as it is; a harmony with nature itself. A intimate friendship with life.

Success that doesn't lead to peace -- that doesn't guide itself by the pole star of peace -- is never, ever going to work. And if you turn on the news, read the paper, or simply look out your window, you'll see that this is dramatically true.

We just don't want to believe it.