Success

The media loves to push narratives to persuade us to believe something. Marketing brainwashes us into thinking we need to have a lot of money, a tone or chiseled body, lots of material belongings, and live up a fancy life. Dream big, work hard, shoot for the stars, own the world. If you do these things, if you have these things, you are successful. The world’s best are those who are successful. Thus, many people attempt to spend their lives doing so. They workout and diet, plotting and planning every detail in order to achieve that perfect body shown in magazines. They go through schooling and incur debts to get college degrees that will allow them to make more money to buy the cars, houses, vacations, and material belongings as a trail of proof. They socialize with those who have more status, and lift their nose up to those who are less fortunate. They want to be better, to be rich, to be successful. They want to be successful, because successful people are the happiest, right?

The media and marketing sells. They buy. Yet, happiness is elusive. Like a roadrunner, it slips through their fingers and takes off, and again they are on the chase. They believe if they keep running, they will catch it, and then they will be happy. So, they run harder until they catch it, but the feeling is fleeting. Instead of taking the time to reflect on WHY this success isn’t what they hoped, they turn to the next object and begin chasing that.

At some point, a break down happens. They have been spending the majority of their lives attempting to become successful, yet never feeling satisfied. Why is this? Our parents, our peers, the media…they all said if we just do this or buy that, we will be successful! We will have achieved greatness. We will be rich, we will be interesting, we will be happy! The real questioning commences. Why is it that they looked to other people’s definition of success as if it applies to everyone, or even anyone? They worked so hard to get to an executive level job, thinking it was real success, but they became more miserable than ever before. The money doesn’t make them feel any better inside. The material belongings are like drugs…temporary boosters that eventually wear off, and could become addicting to the point that more and more and bigger and bigger is needed in order to give the pseudo-positive feeling of success. Never failing to disappoint after a while, yet always failing to provide sustainable happiness. If this is what success is, how is anyone happy? This can’t be right…

Weeding through the questions, a root question is left standing:

What defines success?

A lot of people chase what they are told is success, yet are disappointed to find that there is no meaning behind those stated definitions to them personally. It’s a shallow placeholder on a dusty shelf in their hall of life. If they took the time to know themselves, they would find that success is closer to home.

Success can be different things to different people, but I truly believe in simplicity, and define success in a simple way. Success for me is aligning with my inner being. Yep, that’s it. No ribbon, no glitter, no flashy marquee. That’s boring, you say? I challenge you to look closer, with an open mind.

As we know, we cannot know light without darkness. Therefore, before we look at what alignment with our inner being IS, let’s understand what it ISN’T.

When we don’t align with our inner beings, we feel negative emotion. We may think others are causing it, but it is the disagreement between us and our inner being that causes the feeling. For example, after an argument with someone who has less knowledge about something than you, the thought crosses your mind: that person is stupid. Yet when you think that, you feel off inside…maybe upset, maybe angry, but it’s not a good feeling. You feel off because your inner being does not agree with you. You are feeling the separation between you and your inner being. Your inner being does not think lowly of anyone else, as it has pure positive energy and love flowing for all. Your ego, however, likes to contend with your inner being. While we are unique perspectives, we are all one…but ego didn’t get the memo. Your ego individualizes itself from the collective consciousness, and aims to keep it that way. Ego compares, looks to make you better than someone else, and justifies its position with excuses when things don’t fit ego’s perspective. Ego also looks for external validation, and without it, speaks not-so-kindly of you…yet tells you that it is protecting you. Ego is often the piece causing the separation of us from our inner being, and when we lose that alignment, we feel the adverse affects.

Now that we have delved into the darkness, we know the light. We know that we have aligned with our inner being in any given moment when we feel good. We all have different things that make us come alive, that drive us, that light us up with excitement. In those moments when we feel that vibe, we are in lockstep with the higher part of us. As our inner being is pure positive energy, we FEEL that surging through us when we are synchronized to that part of our being. Think of it as being outside on a breezy, crisp fall day, where there is a clear sky and the sun is beaming. When you step into one of the sun’s rays shining on the ground, your body experiences all the warmth of its energy, and you revel in the feeling while you are in the same place as the sun’s ray of light. If you step outside of that area, into the shade, you experience the cold chill of the fall air, and it doesn’t feel anywhere near as good. It is this “being in the same place” with our inner being that allows us to feel the most joy.

I will also convey an important note here. Alignment with our inner being is never permanent. After all, there will always be contrast for us to learn and grow from, and that contrast will cause us to fall out of alignment. It is our goal to use the contrast to learn more about ourselves, and then focus on getting back into alignment.

So, at this point you may be thinking, how exactly does aligning with my inner being mean success? When we are aligned with our inner beings, we are not only in position to feel the most joy and happiness, but we are being our most authentic selves. We are letting go of societal pressures, letting go of status symbols, and letting go of other people’s opinions. We are feeling the relief of making our lives what we want them to be. As we experience contrast in life, we learn what’s important to us, and what we desire. Inspiration accompanied by action is the blueprint to this life, and we came here to create based on our uniqueness for a collective purpose. When we keep focus on being aligned, and we are heading in the direction of what we want, anything we dream of is possible, We define what our life is, we write our own story. We also know from the contrast that we have experienced or have seen others experience, that the external materials and objects never provide the feeling that we were looking for when we “successfully achieved” them, and that’s because we had it backwards. We were looking for the feeling we thought those items would give us, and that feeling was inside us all along. We just needed to re-align. When we tap into the feeling, the desires come, and we are wiser for knowing that the desires weren’t the goal that caused the happiness, the alignment was. Alignment is the key.

That, my brothers and sisters, is success.