Bhabishya Kumar

I was wondering what's more important in life. I guess being happy would be everyone's ultimate goal. I used to think that being happy & successful are linked together but it doesn't seem so. I find a lot of people who I wouldn't consider successful, quite content in their life. I guess it has do with how much expectations they have from themselves. And I think that depends on the company they keep. That's a topic of another article altogether.

Now, how do you define - Successful? Is it being successful in profession or family life or something else? Its a weighted average of everything. And this is where it becomes interesting. Everyone decides whether they are successful or not based on whatever weightage they have given to each aspect of life. So, maybe there is in fact a link between being successful & happy. Its just that my formula for success doesn't match theirs.

So, what do I give more weightage? I will have to say profession because that's what we are. First we are a School Student, then a College Student, then a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, Businessman, whatever. I have yet to meet a person who introduced himself as

"Hi, I am John. I am a Weekend-Poker-Player", or

"Hi, I am Charles. I am a After-Work-Bar-Goer", or

"Hi, I am Michael. I am Every-Weekend-Orlando-With-Kids-Visitor"!

Even if they are unemployed, that's the first thing they will say about themselves and then all this. Also, we spend 5 days of our week in our job. If you don't care what you do during the weekdays and are happy living the other 2/7th of your life, good for you.

Let me quote something from my article To Geek Or Not To Geek I wrote a few months back.

the amount of money that one can demand and, more importantly, get is inversely proportional to how many people can do his/her job.

The figure that you come up for yourself as compared to the market average for your job & experience should give you a pretty good idea of how you are doing in your profession.

So, what about me? I am happy to be unhappy! I am happy to be aware that unless I am successful in my life, I can't he happy. There is an old adage - "To fix a problem, you have to first admit that there is one". There are a lot of people who live in denial all their lives about their happiness or success or both. At least, I am not one of them.