SUCCESS AND POWER
Today’s words are SUCCESS AND POWER.
Who are you giving your power to?
Who will direct your day?
Are you the driver? Will it be me, or will I let people and events do it for me?
We lose power when we see people or external circumstances take over our lives. We feel overwhelmed and at the mercy of events.
Being successful is related to happiness rather than contentment.
I appreciate this distinction that I heard from Igor Sibaldi. Contented etymologically comes from Latin (contentus) and means to contain, to hold back.
Happy comes from the Latin foelix or felix meaning fruitful, fertile, and in a broader sense, satisfied, fulfilled, and from the Greek as φύω (fyo) broadens the meaning to produce, make, be, generate.
Already in the etymology, we perceive the difference between content and happy. Contented is the person who contains, hence retains. Happy is the one who makes germinate, who creates.
Success, which always derives from the Latin successus -us ‘event, good outcome’, has in itself the concept of making happen.
So the happy person makes it happen, generates, and creates. To be successful is to make it happen. So being successful becomes a consequence of being happy and not a goal.
And what is the test of whether we are happy or content?
Emotions. Always.
So, depending on your emotions, you know if you are experiencing a loss of power.