“The Fastest Way To Succeed Is To Stop Trying!”
(Sounds a bit weird, but I promise it’s true).
I was chatting to a few friends in a nice little pub in the old Roman city of Chester (my home town in the UK), when I was over there a while ago and the conversation turned (as it often does when I go back) to what I do for a living and how I can live on a lovely tropical island, instead of slaving away in a traditional job as I used to when many of these friends first knew me.
I tried to turn the conversation to another subject, because, well, it just feels a bit awkward when you start chunnering on about what you do for a living and how you’ve become successful.
They wouldn’t let me get away with that though and so I turned the conversation to success in general and that began a lively discussion on what success means to different people and how it can mean something very different to one person when compared to another person’s viewpoint.
When push comes to shove though, I strongly believe that success is about being happy.
If you are really happy and contented with your lot in life, then I reckon you have pretty much succeeded, wouldn’t you say?
I mean, if you happen to be in a job you love and you actually enjoy your work and maybe even look forward to going into work every day, then you’d be pretty lucky I’d say, because most people don’t have that.
It’s probably fair to say that most people go to work in a particular job because they have to. Not because they want to.
Bills have to be paid and food has to be put on the table etc. So a job is just a means to an end for most people.
Having two days a week off and perhaps being ‘allowed’ to have 4 to 6 weeks holiday a year is the norm for most folks.
Going to work in the morning before your kids are up and arriving home at night after they’ve gone to bed. That was the norm for me for many years when I worked a ‘normal’ job.
Until I decided that I was going to make things different. Make my life different. That’s when things started to change and was the beginning of a whole lifestyle change too.