by August Aurora James

Created on: October 29, 2008   Last Updated: December 19, 2008

In today's world, the true meaning of complete and total satisfaction and success lies in material excess. once you own that mansion, that sports convertable, those clothes, you can rightfully call yourself successful.....or can you? what is success anyway? Can it measured in differing levels, or is it a state of being one may reach? Is there a person who can be the literal embodiment of universal success, or is the definition of success a personal matter? Since the former seems unlikely, we'll assume the latter is true.

If this is the case, in my opinion happiness is success: once you can call yourself happy, you can call yourself successful. Why do i believe that this is so? Well simply and only because happiness, that elusive yet ubiquitous state of being, is much harder and much more important to attain and maintain than is material excess. Anyone may find the means to have excess of material possesstion in their life, whether the circumstance be receiving them from another person, or going as far as working years and years on an extensive and exhausting education with no other motivation than the paycheck that comes with the job that most likely proceeds such an education to finance such material cravings. Of course, it is an age old argument, but one with much truth to it: can anyone promise that with those material possessions will come happiness? Can anyone know for sure if that man or woman who seem to have everything in the world have anything at all? Material objects are material objects and little else-nothing else, in fact.

It may seem to some i am suggesting everyone live in a cabin in the midst of mountains or woods, far from selfish civilization, far from the burden of electricity, television, cell phones, and countless others of our daily luxuries, but this wouldn't be true. The point i am attempting to get across is that that these luxuries and ones far more luxurious than them are indeed fortunate things to have, but pale in comparison to the things that bring true happiness in life: friends, family, love relationships, personal hobbies. These are things that bring the truly fortunate genuine happiness and satisfaction. I once read a very interesting book by a former president of the American Psychological Association on the nature of true happiness in which he talks about "shortcuts" humans have created to feeling good, things without substance, things like shopping and television, to name just a few mentioned, as compared to the things that lead to genuine happiness. In the book, he claims not only will these shortcuts to happiness not bring you lasting happiness, but that they lead to "legions of people who in the middle of great wealth are starving spiritually." These shortcuts are indeed convenient to have to draw upon for pleasure occasionally in life, but they should never be one's primary source of joy.

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