Success and happiness do not mean the same thing.

Do you know what is the difference between success and happiness? Many of us believe that success in life is the direct path to happiness. We dream of achieving our work and personal goals, forgetting completely the simplest things that give us the day to day. The question is: why do we believe that success and happiness are synonymous?

We can define success as the "achievement" or "satisfactory result" of an objective. It is the arrival to a marked destination from the beginning, it is the end of a long journey in which we have fought and overcome a thousand obstacles. But can we define happiness in the same way? Does reaching this goal provide emotional fulfillment?

Success, while pursuing it, may seem like a dream and along that path, we forget, almost unconsciously, the power of now and our own well-being. The obsession to achieve an objective forces us to walk blindly in a world full of opportunities. For this reason, it is important to know the difference between success and happiness.

Does this mean that successful people are not happy? Of course not. There are people with success and happiness, but there are also successful and unhappy people. Phrases like: "When I get it, I'll be happy", they only lead us to a dream state from which we can awaken once the goal has been achieved. It is at that moment when we can be aware of everything lost along the way.

Every goal in life requires efforts of a higher or lower level. We all know what to do or at least try, to be competitive or stand out from the rest. We can fight to achieve our work, economic or personal goals, but always without forgetting to disconnect from time to time, and find time for leisure and entertainment, enjoy the family, surround ourselves with positive people and good friends. Nor can we give up before failures, we all fail. The smart thing is to learn from those failures (only small bumps in the road), and the opportunities they can provide.

If we are able to reserve time to enjoy day to day as we struggle to achieve other goals, we can be happy to succeed, without the need to believe that success will give us happiness.