Success and happiness

 I was just asked what success and happiness means to me for a coach conference I’m attending. Here’s what I said. I thought you might like it:

“To me success is meaningless without fulfilment.  To me fulfilment is the essence of real, lasting happiness – and is the birthplace of meaningful success. This success blossoms from embracing yourself, others and life itself. Rich success is the outcome of singing your song, doing your life’s work, playing your part and enabling others to see and dance in their own light. It is your gift to life and life’s gift to you.”Rasheed OgunlaruCoach-Speaker-Author

***

To me this is my personal view and it’s also my professional view too. The two intertwine. My life has taken me on an interesting journey. Not so much in the way that many people’s lives take them on a journey to wonderful places around the world, and on all sorts of adventures. In my own case that has not such much been the nature of the journey. It has been an inner journey of ‘self discovery’. It began long before I became a coach and speaker and actually it led me to that.

If I think about it that journey began a very long time ago and I would have been very young. Interestingly it often involved writing. The first thing I wanted to be was an author. I wrote stories at school. I wrote poems. I wrote a diary. Over time the written word gave way to the spoken word: songs and music emerged as did the work in media on radio and on Television. I love all these mediums of communication. They all have their own unique power. But that’s all very well and good, what’s really important is to find your own magic, your own music, your own song. It is important to look at your own path and your own journey.

If we come back to this central theme of success and happiness, when you look closely you will find that both these things are far more subtle than you might first of all think. They are not solid, they are not fixed, they are not tangible. Even though you may think success is tangible and material if you look again, if your use all your senses you will find that it is more of a feeling than it is a specific situation.

I often say that success is dependent on so many factors; you, your talents, the weather, the competition, your hard work, your drive, your skill set, your resources, your resourcefulness, your environment. It is dependent on so many factors. It may come and it may go.  But your happiness now that is far more near and present. That is within your own hands and heart. Happiness is something that we tend to have and move away from – where is success is some idea we are seeking to move towards. Happiness, you will find, is the embracing of yourself and life itself. It is a place of deep acceptance, appreciation, awareness. It is a place of empathy and understanding.

I have a saying “success is meaningless without fulfilment – both begin within”. It’s this that I have found in life and it’s this that is the essence of my work. I also say that if you look closely there is very little to my work. All of my work is essentially the same as a coach, speaker and author. It is the same if I’m coaching a Chief Executive, running a team away day or speaking at a University or School. The topics that are ascribed to me to deliver or that I offer up vary – but the essence is the same. My work and my job is to invite people to look afresh at their selves and life itself,to embrace life and their own magic. That is it. That is all.