Success Vs. Satisfaction

A satisfied life is better than a successful life because our success is measured by others, but our satisfaction is measured by our own soul, mind and heart.

In one of my classes, a lecturer asked us about the difference between success and satisfaction. Till that point of time, all of us knew those were two entirely different words. But, we could not differentiate between them when she asked us. She also asked us, which one makes a person happier in life and which one of the two should a person go after. Not a single student in our class could answer her question. After our class, we forgot about this question. Until recently, I remembered it again.

After a lot of reading, I understood that success is a measure of your achievements. It is a measure of how much money you earned, your salary, how well settled you are in life, or in which company you work. You can just say that it is an outsider's view or assessment of your life. They only consider the material assets in your life. The society has a common practise of assessing your “success”. Based on this assessment, they determine your value. That is how the world categorizes people. Sometimes, people keep chasing this illusion, without realizing what they had was more than enough and end up losing everything. Obsession over success makes people greedy and unhappy, they want more and more.

So, does this mean success is a bad thing? Absolutely, not! To really know whether a person is successful, or not, I feel we should consider how satisfied a person is with his/her life. This is where, satisfaction comes into the picture. Satisfaction is the experience; it is abstract, only known to that person. You are satisfied with something if only you, and you alone decide that it went well and you are happy with the result. While success doesn’t ensure that you will be happy in life, satisfaction definitely makes you happy. You are satisfied, when you fulfil your desire and either the result gives you joy or the experience does.

I have seen and read about people who are “successful” with a good job, who are not happy at all. It might be because they are not doing what they love or due to some other reasons. So, here comes another question. Should we leave a stable life, and follow our passion and do what we love, which might be risky? There seems to be no definite answer to this. Some people have succeeded after following their passion and are extremely satisfied and happy with their lives. While others could not succeed, but are still happy that they followed their passion. Such situations have varied outcomes, and different people have different experiences. Some regret having followed their passion and other regret not following it.

Some might not agree with my take on this topic, and I am not sure whether it is correct or not, but I intend to find out. Whatever you do, I hope you put all your efforts into it, because hard work never fails and you find satisfaction in trying your best. Treasure everything you have, because you don’t know the worth of anything until you lose it.