Does success assure happiness?

A common misconception is that as we compete and win, we can experience true happiness. I recently heard the actor Morgan Freeman interviewed, who was asked how much happier he is now since he won the Academy Award. The actor humbly replied, "I was living a life of happiness before I won that award, and I am living the same life now.

My Academy Award sits on a shelf as a sign of an accomplishment of an event, but it has no bearing on the happiness in my life." Morgan Freeman knows that real competition is competition with oneself and the goal of always improving your acting skills, your surgical skills, or your teaching skills. If you believe that competing against the other teacher for teacher of the year and winning is going to give you true happiness you are going to continue on a roller-coaster ride.

But if you believe that competing with yourself and becoming a more passionate teacher every day of your life will make you happy, you are on the road to happiness. Remember, a time at work when you were working on a project and everyone was cooperating to make the project great. Do you remember the wonderful rich feeling of cooperation and camaraderie you experienced when you worked together on a common goal?

Now remember a time at work when your put yourself in direct competition for something. Do you remember the vigilant, intense, relentless energy? Remember the isolation you experienced?

A lifetime of competition is exhausting and will not create true happiness. Extreme competition can create a lonely, hollow life.

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