Many times we are encouraged to achieve success. Some of us have the will to achieve success rooted deep within ourselves. But are our successes really successes? Do we feel fulfilled or do we feel as if we still miss something? Success does not have to be something static or definitive. Success is often referred to as the "progressive realization of a worthy ideal". However, progression is more than progress. It's dynamics with perspective. And worthy value is something we first realize within and then prove outwardly.

Interview with successful businessman

I spoke to a friend recently. Very successful person ... if we would measure success with money .... With his company with a turnover of more than USD 20,000,000 a year, built on a green field, has been recording an annual growth for seven years. He is influential man of natural respect, and in general there are not many goals that he could not achieve.

Last summer he went to Florida with his wife and son after many years. Although he spent his holidays with a laptop in one and a mobile phone in the other hand, everyone returned happy. We know each other from the time when I trained in his company soft-skills and we are also connected with interest in health and natural vitality.

"Tom, you know, when we were gone, it took a while, but after a week I managed to get away from all the confusion around here and relax as I haven't. But since we came back, I think about the numbers all day long and still I have my eyes like a flashlight at night, and I can't fall asleep until 4 am. It takes away the inner peace from me and I´m still thinking of how many deals I missed during the day. It's just 8,000 dollars, but you know ... you just can't sleep – just slipped between your fingers... I'm in a real need of capable buyers here at the company. Guys who would do the ant work instead of me and I could devote myself to real business. I want to sleep, but I can't do it. Do you know anything that might help? I mean something that would allow me to relax a little and sleep at night to be fresh in the morning and ready for what awaited me?'

I´m considering all possible ways, I coud only recall, for a while. We've known each other for a while and I'm a fairly cheerful man. We look into each other's eyes and I start laugh: "Yeah, but you really don't want to relax! You want to do business! Wow! Look what you did here. A week was enough in Florida and you were fine. And the company? Works perfectly. But you don't want to rest." I explain: "Commerce is your passion. It's your priority. You do it well and you like it. And once you have the opportunity, you give it all. Sure, you can take a lemon balm. It works great with honey. But even if you would drink two liters for the night ...! We both know it won't help you any more than if you drank coffee instead. " „Yes, I know,“ he replies in the affirmative, „but you know, I just have to think about all deals. For example, right now...“ 

Yes, he's right. I really understand and know. And I understand and know for almost ten years. Who else wouldn't think of what he loves and what he gives him boost, right? Interview makes me think -

 Is what we always want that what we really want?

My friend's life is basically simple. An endless sequence of victories and struggles with rare defeats, but one skillfully turns them into opportunities. The cycle, accompanied by an ever-increasing number of zeros rising behind number one in its own bank account. The perfect money maker ... money that can be exchanged here and there for fleeting feelings of well-being and satisfaction, without remorse or fear that it would ever be possible to exhaust all of its reserves to the end. There is practically nothing to deny on the material plane. And yet ... as if something remained unsatisfied.

In balance and inner peace

Technically, as humans, we are able to experience physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual satisfaction. From my own experience, I can say that anyone who experienced a certain (or indefinite :-) dissatisfaction in any sense or direction was dissatisfied when one or more were neglected from given planes. Neglecting, as well as giving preference to one area or another, causes an imbalance that does not seem to be of benefit to us.

But the crucial question is how to find our own way and balance between all our needs. How can overall satisfaction and inner peace be achieved while remaining with ourselves without disturbing our standards of living or harmony with our surroundings?

Looking for your own path or finding it

Everything we have ever achieved outwardly was inside before. Either we imagined it or we accepted it as an idea from the outside. Therefore, we do not start with certain steps or search for a way, but first ask the question: "What do we really want ...?" We do not ask ´what we think we want´, or ´what our environment demands or expects from us´. Neither what we are led or forced to do with our previous commitments and decisions ...

But to what extent the vision we imagine under the word 'satisfaction' is real. Finally, if what we do is directed towards fulfilling it, or do we ever do things that do not bring lasting satisfaction or even prevent it from being achieved?

If we know what we want and what we do not want, it is much easier to think in detail about what we do is in line with our intention and what is not. As a result, we know that our last step will be meaningful and constructive. This step is cultivation.

If we imagine life as a garden that we received as a gift, we will see that there are many interesting, beautiful and useful plants growing in it. However, wild shrubs also grow among fruit trees, which choke them and prevent them from planting new fruits and ripening tasty fruits. The lawn here and there is decorated with small fragrant strawberries, but there is also growing bedstraw, which sticks to one's feet and brakes him wherever he moves. Some weeds are easy to handle. Others may need a brush cutter, and others will require patience to tear off new plants that appear from flowers that have already been planted. On the contrary, we will gladly support young rhizomes of strawberries and prepare them both space and loosened soil in which they would be willing to take root. Similarly, we do not cut down the trees, but cut through to make the remaining branches strengthen and bear richer crops. In the same way we can approach our own life and everything we experience.

Sometimes it wants to water ...

You say, that it sounds complicated? I do not know what successes you have achieved in life. One thing I know for sure ... most of them certainly did not come by chance without requesting a few smashing drops of sweat.

Let's think for a moment about success as an internally fulfilled, contented life. Let us not think about the conditions that would lead to this life. Let us focus on its essence instead of the formal side that surrounds it. Let us find ways to live our life fully where we are, with a sense of inner peace, balance, fulfillment and satisfaction. And this together with the knowledge that we live meaningfully and in harmony with our surroundings without anyone suffering. Let us ask about the fullness of life that can be achieved not by abandoning our garden or cutting it off to start again completely. But by accepting it as it is, realizing what we expect from it and what we want to give it, and then, by our own efforts and care, we make it similar to our vision to complement one another's surroundings. You say it is sometimes difficult to clearly realize what we really want from life and what we do not? But in the end we don't have to be alone ... Why not turn to “garden architects”?

Motto:

"Even some wild apple tree can be grafted instead of felling."