Yesterday I shared how I feel that the way we approach success today is lopsided. To reflect more on this, let us first ascertain what we are really looking for in life. Is success a means or an end in itself? Do we seek success or are we seeking something else and success is a means to it? In my opinion, what we are all seeking is happiness and somehow we have started believing that success will bring happiness. Here, I would also like to differentiate between happiness experienced as an emotion and happiness as a state of being. While achievement in a certain area can bring us an experience of a temporary state of exhilaration, it cannot ensure a sustained feeling of happiness and contentment.

Happiness , I feel is a product of balance. When my physical, mental,social, emotional and spiritual health, my relationships and my work are in balance, I am happy. Hence, success can be defined as achieving balance in these aspects of life. Every person is endowed with the resources of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual capacity, money, the power of speech and action, relationships and time. We spend these resources to achieve what we want in life. If our goal is clear, then our distribution of resources towards the achievement of the goal is ideal. And an ideal investment ensures an ideal outcome. It is very important to define our aim clearly because our aim decides the way we use the above resources. I have seen people spending all their capacities, all their life, to earn money and then whine about not being happy or peaceful or healthy or complain about their family not caring for them.

Our physical, mental,social, emotional and spiritual health, relationships and work can be seen as seven gardens surrounding us. They have to be watered and taken care of individually. It is an illusion to think that if I water one garden, all the seven gardens would flourish. For example, some people think that if I work hard and earn good money, it would ensure good health and relationships or someone thinks that if I go to the gym regularly and take care of my physical health, my mental and emotional health would automatically improve and also, if my body is attractive, I will form good relationships but it is not so. One has to really take care of all the seven gardens individually and divide his resources of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual capacity, money, the power of speech and action, relationships and time in an optimum way as to achieve success in all these areas. We will discuss more on this tomorrow.

In Spiritual Service
Brahma Kumaris
www.bkshilpa.com
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