“I’ve been asking myself a question: Do I have the right to laugh if I fall short of my expectations?”
It’s been a thoughtful question for me, as it makes me doubt my worth.
I mean, if I gather less money, don’t complete the work I had aimed for, and somehow fail to accomplish the goals I set – should I think of myself as a loser?
It happens to all of us
The world resembles a heaven when you control life. You breathe in positivity and feel surrounded by optimism. “You’re doing great,” you may tell yourself.
But when you lose, you don’t look at yourself in the mirror. Your self-respect crumbles and hits the ground. When people look at you, you think you’re being judged.
This belief doesn’t feel right
We’ve already set criteria for happiness.
“I’ll be happy if I succeed.”
“I’ll drown in remorse if I fail.”
Both are obvious outcomes – they happen.
You can only watch them, like a spectator. Though, the problem begins when you chain your happiness to materialism and success.
We’re hungry for contentment. We seek reasons to laugh like kids. But when we fasten our happiness to ‘practical stuff,’ we fall flat on our face.
We break our teeth, and then we hesitate to smile.
We think ‘success is happiness,’ but it’s the other way around
Some people may disagree with me, and I’m fine with that. But it’s what I’ve learned after understanding what my life’s been about.
You may press your lips tight and frighten yourself “Don’t dare to smile until you attain xyz!” But for how long? It’s not that you can’t be happy without being successful, but you’re not letting yourself be.
If only you appreciate the simple truth that success isn’t happiness but happiness is success itself, you’d live more.
To be honest, years might pass, but you won’t ever stop feeling like you’re almost there. Not even until the day you die. That’s how several lives are wasted.
So, can you be happy without success?
If you’re smiling and feel grateful for your existence, you’re successful. You’re living the kind of life everyone wishes for.
The notion of waiting until you buy a big home, stuffing your bank with a million dollars, or getting a car so you can tell yourself “Yes, now I can happy,” is flawed.
Regardless of whether you succeed or fail, laugh whenever you can. Make mistakes, fall over and rise. Success and failure are ordinary things – like pieces of the giant puzzle.
They aren’t permanent.
But life’s temporary.
It slips away, leaving your hands empty with a sensation of what you held in them. So I’m trying to hold happiness. I don’t want my life to feel wasted.