Measure Success with Internal Well Being

When you look back in your life to analyze your achievements and measure your success, you will discover it is hard to decide what your successes are because your understanding of success changes as you get older.

As a young person, you are fired with enthusiasm to achieve success in earning money, fame, recognition and approval. When these basic needs are fulfilled, you become aware of other needs taking over in your mind, like love and relationships and you struggle to succeed in maintaining them. Finally, at the fag-end of your life, you are prepared to give up all material comforts in order to succeed in attaining self realization, leading to inner peace.

To sum up the entire gamut of your life, there is a hierarchy of desires, starting from the lowest level to the highest, that can measure human behavior. The lowest level deals with fulfilling physiological needs such as food, shelter, clothes and sex. Arrogance, conceit, pride and envy are by-products you end up with, when you succeed this level. The next level is psychological needs like love, fame, confidence, status, prestige, reputation and social acceptance and the highest level is the need to acquire self realization through contemplation and meditation.

Your behavior depends on the degree of emphasis you place on any level in the hierarchy. Over indulgence in the lowest level will cause you to lose out on other levels. Pursuing a career and material comforts only, will cost you your family and friends as well as internal well being and harmony. Balance and achieve your objectives, using right conduct and fair means. Real success is achieved only when your mind is free of inner turmoil and conflicts