This is a guest post by Douglas Manning, an attorney and entrepreneur based in East Texas. After undergoing several personal tragedies and consequently hitting financial and emotional rock bottom, Douglas built a real estate investment company, and consciously created a hope-filled, dynamic life for his family and himself. He expresses himself through his website, http://www.successhound.com . This article analyzes happiness in the most profound way possible. May you enjoy its benefits in full measure —
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Traditional Goal Setting: The Cart Is Before The Horse
If you grew up in the United States, you are instilled with the belief that success leads to happiness. Furthermore, you probably have the same predictable definition of “success” as everyone else. If you grew up like me, you were taught that success means:
· A good job or successful business
· Nice house
· Nice car or two
· Money in the bank
· Boat, plane, recreational vehicle or other toys
When you achieve these things, you will be happy.
Now, if these constitute all, or part, of your definition of success, I am not here to argue with you. You have the exclusive right to measure success by whatever benchmark you choose. In fact, one of the biggest problems in our society is that individuals look to their family, peers or the media to define success for them.
Anytime you achieve anything that you desire, you are successful. It is satisfying to work hard toward a goal and finally achieve the brass ring. I would, however, like to interject one point for you to consider in contemplating your definition of success. It opens another, universal perspective:
Achievement of material wealth is merely evidence of success and not success itself
Manifesting Happiness As A Better Measure Of Success
The problem with traditional measures of success is that it focuses upon the manifestation of the goal, instead of the emotions associated with achieving it. When you focus upon acquisition of the goal, whether material or not, it is too easy to let your focus slip away from the excitement and anticipation of achieving the goal to worrying that you might never manifest the goal as reality.
I am often amused as I observe my family and peers seek an external set of guidelines or rules against which they can measure the success of their life experience.
How about you? Do you look outside yourself to determine what they should want?
You need not do so. After all, you have your own sophisticated, precise, and immediately available barometer of your own success, specifically, your emotion of happiness.
The Universe responds to your emotions above anything else. More specifically, the Universe responds positively to your sense of joy. You cannot feel joy while you are focusing upon the lack of achievement. No journal, vision board or list of affirmations can overcome this contradiction in your own vibration. Lack of specific positive emotion (happiness) or worse, the presence of negative emotion (worry) will keep you from achieving the things that you desire. However, if you specifically pursue feelings of joy and happiness, you will remain in a state of vibration that matches that of the Universe.
If you make “happiness” your standard of success, you will more readily align yourself with the vibration of the Universe and all of your material goals will more easily and quickly manifest as reality.
Set Happiness As Your Primary Goal And The Universe Will Manifest The Rest
As you contemplate your current reality in a state of awareness of the way you feel, you are better able to deliberately guide your thoughts toward those that make you feel better, joyful and happy.
Here are the important points to remember as you strive to make happiness the ultimate measure of your success.
1. Enjoy the satisfaction of being upon a path that is consistent with your life purpose and in alignment with the vibration of the Universe.
2. Using your own emotions as a barometer, think and do that which best gives you feelings of happiness and joy whatever your current circumstances.
3. Be grateful that you now understand the power of the law of attraction as it responds, with absolute fairness, to your free will as a conscious creator.
4. Allow the Universe to move in the direction of the goals that you really want to achieve.
As you contemplate these points, seek the thoughts that most manifest feelings of happiness. As you reconnect with your feelings of happiness, you will reconnect with the Universe. Your life purpose will become more readily apparent and your zest for life will return to you as well.
When you make happiness your definite chief aim, all of your other goals, material or not, will fall into place.
Go, with thoughts of happiness.
Douglas E. Manning
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