{"id":67300,"date":"2023-05-22T15:04:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T07:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mindvalley.com\/?p=67300"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:28:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:28:36","slug":"success-and-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindvalley.com\/blog\/success-and-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Success and happiness: Can you have both?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cMoney can\u2019t buy happiness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to choose between success and happiness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHappiness and success are just for the rich and famous.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These ideas may have shaped your experiences, but is there any truth to them? Is it actually possible to be both happy and successful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short answer is yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you may know, what brings joy and fulfillment to one person may not be the same for another. It’s important to recognize that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to achieving a joyful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat correlation between happiness and success is not as simple as it looks<\/em>,\u201d explains Kristina M\u00e4nd-Lakhiani<\/strong>, author of Becoming Flawesome: The Key to Living an Imperfectly Authentic Life<\/em>. \u201cAnd it flows, surprisingly, in another direction.<\/em>\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with the right guidance, you may just find yourself heading in that direction toward a life of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success and happiness: Key differences and similarities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When people think of success and happiness, oftentimes, they automatically believe the two go hand in hand. After all, didn\u2019t society teach us all along that success is supposed to bring only joy and fulfillment? It may come as no surprise that that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s break down the definitions of these two and see how they\u2019re different, but also why they show some similarities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Success is, in general, about completing something you set out to do. On the other hand, happiness is a subjective feeling of contentment and satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a side-by-side comparison between the two:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success<\/strong><\/td>Happiness<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
External and often universal<\/td>Internal and personal<\/td><\/tr>
Achievement or accomplishment<\/td>A state of being in your emotional world<\/td><\/tr>
It focuses on gaining wealth (be it material, social, or intellectual)<\/td>It focuses on improving your life from the inside out<\/td><\/tr>
It usually needs material objects to be achieved<\/td>It\u2019s usually about subjective moments of well-being that can be triggered unexpectedly<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In her book, Kristina points out that oftentimes, success is highly defined by our society. Its views on what it means to be a super successful person trigger our standards of perfectionism<\/a> in different ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n