Thursday Thought - Success vs Fulfilment

This week's Thursday's thought is thinking about success versus fulfilment, I've copied down some definitions here of the two, so I'm just going to share them. 

Success
The accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. 

Fulfilment
1. The act of doing something that you have promised or intended to do.
2. A feeling of happiness because you are doing what you intended to do in life. 

Now within Pura Vida Living we very much focus on the second, the feeling of happiness because you were doing what you intended to do in life. 

These words like success, achievement, fulfilment, purpose, can all have a certain connotation and can also really be driven by what society thinks is success or fulfilment or achievement. It's having that successful job or business that pays well, having a lovely house, a great car, perfect relationship, maybe it's perfect health, fitness, perfect body, perfect image. 

It's still different for everybody but it's often what we perceive society thinks we should have, and it's easy to keep striving for something and then when we get there, we've achieved success. But there's still always another place to go. 

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having goals or ambitions or intentions. 

But taking a step back and going 
“Okay, what is fulfillment for me?” 
“What is going to make me feel happy?” 

One simple way just to look at this is when you get to your destination, whatever the goal might be, what is the feeling that it's going to bring up inside you? 
Is it happiness? 
Is it joy? 
Is it peace? 
Is it pride? 

Have a think into that moment when you've got whatever it is that you're considering successful - what is the sensation? 
What is the emotion and the feeling? 

Because that is how to tap into fulfilment. 
It's that feeling you're after, it's not having the car or the house or the money, it's that feeling that brings fulfilment. 

We often come with just a one-track mind of "okay this is how we get success, this is how I get fulfilment." But when you take a step back and look at okay, what is the goal behind the goal? (as I term it) What is that feeling I'm trying to achieve? 

Often other avenues that you hadn't even considered actually open up because you're taking a different perspective on what achievement is, of what fulfilment is. 

I’m just going to simply leave you with the question; 

What is the goal behind the goal? 
What is the emotion that you want to experience once you've achieved your goals?

Anna, 
Owner of Pura Vida Living,
A well being company for busy professionals and our mission is to keep well-being simple and accessible to everybody. 

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