I am successful. You are not.
By: Shuaib Masoud
Tags: Winner, Winners And Losers, Content, Success, Gratitude

How dare I?

Let me start by saying real or permanent success to me only comes from One and given only by The One and Most High. Allah.

After all what on earth is permanent?…..Awkard pause (for some)….

OK facts aside.

In this post however and since I believe we all have different views of success in this universe, I am to take one view, and that is the view which is probably the most common definition of success — wealth and it’s many strings.

So let’s start by asking the question: Are you successful?

Let that sink in slowly first and then answer the question. Some need to be asked this question twice. So let me ask it again: Are you successful?

For most it will be a quick yes or no — however before they give this answer they will quickly ask themselves something like this — ‘Have I met the goal of achieving X, Y or Z or all?’ Then they will answer themselves with a ‘Yes’ or 'No' depending whether they have reached that goal or not. After all as mentioned above, for some, success is tied to tangible/s things such as a car, a house, money, stocks, jewellery etc etc. But is this you too? Did you reply to yes to the first question and arrived at the decision that you’re successful? Or did you reply no because if you haven’t 'made X number of money' or ‘not got the dream home’ yet. If yes what was the goal that you achieved that made you successful?

Now as ask me the same thing? What would I say? I can just paint any perfect picture I want i.e. like tell a lie or say any old rubbish. But where the value in that??!

So for me the answer would a simple: Yes.

‘Why and wth?’ I hear you say.’ Let’s break this down and try to look at it from different angles to try and justify why I can arrive at such an emotional decision so easily.

Content and Happiness — For me this is important but with an added factor: gratitude. I strongly believe if we are not thankful to the Creator then we will never be happy (since it He Who gives and takes) and we know that a happy heart is a happy brain and life. For the non religious please stick with me because this is my driving seat and I firmly believe these conclusions that come from deeply spiritual roots. Plus it’s good to keep 100 right?? ;-) So where does content come into play?? If your grateful and have gratitude you will be content with everything you’ve had, have and will have. Finally happiness will always be available as a direct effect and I firmly believe if it’s hard to stay content then we are either loosing hope or happiness so we need to improve content and gratitude. Also let’s not forget the ones in true hardship — warzones, poverty and ones who were destroyed by natural disasters — our prayers are with you. Finally let’s also not forget about the ones at the ‘top’ (celebs and the very wealthy) since they too could be mentally, spiritually and emotionally lost — because I believe like being in hardship having too much is also a true test of life. People — choose and be always around the right people. Ideally always but doesn’t mean you don’t help strangers or needy like homeless, poor, drug addicts etc. when needed. Just watch out for danger though from as far as possible so you can avoid it. I feel like 90% of good new things can be learned from good friends and family. Actions — We can write a whole article about this but as long we are doing the right thing then most of the time I firmly believe you will reach your goals of success quicker and with a lot less hurdles. So I repeat it again — always do the right thing. One thing that I believe deserves it’s own position but is greatly concerned with actions too is fasting. It’s important for one to fast and it seems because we are so wired to perform 10x better in every way when we fast we need to try some form of it every month; at least once! You’re body, mind and soul will win so it will be really win-win-win situation. Also because it teaches you discipline it’s the best tool to use for controlling addictions such as greed, gambling etc. Time — Many great leaders have said and will always keep repeating this. WHY??? Well it’s obviously that it’s like the ‘bucket’ of all things if you like i.e. it will fill up and will have no more room one day. So use it wisely and do only the important and joyous things in life for others as well as for yourself and family. Time is the chain link that binds all the other goals we ought to do within our lives i.e. the rest of the items on this list so dissect it with your best knife. Goals — I used to firmly believe true success comes only from having an unlimited amount of money. This was my biggest goal and now it’s much lower down the list as to me it’s far from the truth. Now I believe I am happy with whatever Allah provides whether little or lots, easy or hard as long as I am trying my best in whatever good means I am following. And if whatever has been provided for me then I firmly believe this GOAl is 100% percent full up all the time and certainly THERE IS NO FIGURE attached nor material things. Another way to view this is I am not targeting any amount of greed just so once I’ve reached there I act as if it was just to tick a box and this was my only definition of success. Nope. That said I believe you really get what you put in ( I/O ) and everyone can have some influence on this (to a degree) especially in the built up world where generally there is more opportunities and it helps to have enough to live a comfortable life. We can see it’s important to strive for a decent level and have a goal which will cover living costs, family etc. as well as some for saving.

If I was to chart this up you can see slices like so with my agreed weighting:

What is success? This is possibly my best definition of success for ME

Conclusion

The biggest form of success is when you finally reach an agreement with YOURSELF in your heart and brain that only YOU can define your own success — whatever that may be.

Let’s not chase a dream of others nor let others define what success is for us. In fact for the most part we don’t even need to use the word, i.e. success, if it causes more harm than good — a better way to think and act is to live a normal life and work hard at it and with all the right varables aformentioned you will (hopefully) be happy.

After all who has the right to call others successful (unsuccessful) other the one him or herself?