It was in the early days of teaching meditation and enlightenment that I met a guy who had been meditating for 20 years, 2 hrs per day, with a total time investment of 14,600hrs. His challenge was ... the meditation wasn't translating into real success or a better quality of life i.e. his life still sucked.
The answer, he was doing it wrong, so wrong it was hurting. He had to start again, which as I'm sure you can imagine, wasn't enthralling.
Sure, he learned discipline and self-control and although that helped him achieve a level or type of success, it wasn't the total success he wanted nor the deep happiness he longed for.
Effort, discipline and control take us only so far and although they may deliver a measure of success, even happiness, to the extent it's achieved, a hefty price is paid.
This is the world we live in, the world we've created. The model of success we've developed and which we unquestionably follow achieves limited success for some, maximum success for a tiny few and is responsible for the untold pain and suffering of nearly everyone.
I believe it's important we cultivate and grow our desire to succeed and experience deep happiness, but more importantly we need to carefully re-think how we measure it, how we go about achieving it and why we want it to begin with.
If our limited success and happiness comes at the expense of others and theirs at ours, which in the current model whether we acknowledge it or not, it does, then it's time to collectively change the model.
On the road to greater success and deeper happiness effort is crucial, right effort, mission critical.
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