You are successful

Tom Sangala February 26, 2018

405 3 minutes read

Would you believe it that you are one of the most successful people on earth? The most anticipated answer is a big ‘no’. But that does not take away the fact that you are successful and you have always been successful.

We normally fail to recognise our success because we worry a lot about things that we do not have. In the end, we have the feeling of emptiness. Consider the pleasure you had the moment you secured a job, you got married or you got promoted? You felt on cloud nine. You told everybody about it. You cherished that feeling. But, with time, all that evaporated. Not that it lost value. No. It is all because you started wanting more promotions and other jobs that you do not have. It is all because you feel others are in better marriages and you are not. When you concentrate on what you do not have, you lose the essence of the success you have had.

Justin Cohen fantastically puts it: “Success is a feeling. Sometimes it is a feeling we call pleasure but if we go deeper, it is a sustained feeling called happiness. The aim of everything we do is to feel good or at least to feel better.”

Live every day realising that you are a successful person. This calls for an attitude of gratitude in all small things you do well. We normally wait for tomorrow; that we will be successful tomorrow. That is not true. You have been successful today. Tomorrow never comes. Surely that is a fact. The reality is that what tomorrow has is death. If you do not live a successful life today, you will surely never live a successful life tomorrow as the most sure thing about tomorrow is death. Live in this day as if it were your last day. Cherish the job that you have, the family that you have and the people that you have. Create the aura of happiness around you.

The mistake we normally make is that we associate money with success. People with money are considered successful. That is where we get it wrong. Associate success with happiness then you will have got the formula right. There are many people with money that live in severe depression day in, day out. Materiality can be a cause of happiness but it is not on its own happiness. Have you ever seen angelic smiles on the faces of children that are victims of war?

Find that distinctive element that brings happiness in you and build a success factory on that. If you feel good when you visit the sick, then that is the intrinsic mover in your life. Success is born from the inside not from the outside. What we see on the outside is just a mask for the pain torturing our hearts and souls.

You will be successful the moment you start considering everything you do as a calling rather than just work or a job. If you sweep streets, consider that your calling is to make the environment better. Only in that way can you enjoy what you do. What it means is that every time you are sweeping the streets, you do not consider that to be work but your calling to make the earth a better looking place.

How do you explain the smile on the face of a person who cleans the toilet every time, yet they have a smile to tell you ‘welcome to my office’? The smile comes in because the person believes in that they are there to make toilets pleasant places. If they have to think much in terms of work, the person would be less happy. Turn your job into a calling. Most people in seemingly good jobs end up being depressed; mourning over the relationships they have with other members of staff. Usually, the main factor is that they do not have passion as they work for a job than a calling.

So many times, a story has been told of people collecting stones. Others would actually say we are just gathering stones. Others would say we are building a cathedral. Surely, among the two, the group that looks at building a cathedral will be successful and happier when collecting stones. To them, the greatest element is building a cathedral. They want to stand tall one day in life and marvel at the cathedral and tell everybody: “I built that cathedral”.

Now that you know you are successful, give other people a chance; believe in others and help them with the resources they need to get to where you are.

Siphiwe Moyo urges us all: “We need to build a world where success is not exclusive. Not just for you and you but those around us too. Do things to benefit others. Open doors for people who have lived their entire lives behind closed doors. If you can, just do it. Not tomorrow, not next month, just do it today, do it now in fact.”