Success and Happiness - Concluded

If you indeed have been going through this series on 'Success and Happiness', it would seem to you that Serotinin-the mood stabilizer; Endorphins - the painkiller/pleasure chemicals; Dopamine - the Reward chemical; and Oxytocin - the Love chemical exist in watertight compartments. It was convenient to discuss them that way but, in reality, they tend to coexist. AND more than one get produced by the same activity.

When you go running, for example, the sunshine improves your serotonin levels and the exertion kicks off the endorphins. If you also have target timings to achieve, the achievement of the targets will give you a dopamine high. AND, if you are doing it as a part of a group practicing for a Marathon, the camaraderie kicks off the Oxytocin as well.

That is not only an example, it is also to tell you that you can tailor an activity to increase your happiness levels. Even in the pursuit of success. You'd have heard about the highs of a small group involved in a start-up. The 'we are in it together' feel that sets off oxytocin, the joy of doing what you want to do which comes from dopamine and serotonin - that's the sort of joy which is hard to replicate in a established organisation unless the organisation itself provides the environment for it.

The pursuit of success in an area which you love to work in, in conducive company, in a healthy, non-obsessive manner, and where you can still spare the time to round off your life with non-work related relationships and activities IS a pursuit which can actually enhance happiness.

Too often, people think of blindly pursuing success and, having achieved it, devoting the rest of life to the pursuit of happiness. THAT's the sort of plan that works successfully as often as an aspiring actor in Bollywood becoming a Shah Rukh Khan.

More often than not, what happens is that either success eludes you or you have lost your relationships by then or you have lost your life before then.

Life is short and uncertain. It is not wrong to aspire to the fruits on top of the mountain. What is abysmally stupid is to keep your eyes so focused on those fruits that you ignore all the berries on the way.