Did Tracy get it wrong?

We all want to be happy, but one of the things I’ve been wondering since listening to Tracy’s story is: Did Tracy get it wrong? I would’ve thought that there must be truth to the story that success can make you happy. Surely the story couldn’t be that persistent if there was no truth behind it?

Right from the start of our education we start to learn about the importance of success. It’s an over simplification but many of us will be very familiar with the story of success:

If you perform well in your exams and other assessments then you will be successful at getting into the uni course you want to. Then if you perform well at your uni assessments and exams you will succeed in getting the career that you desire. Then if you perform well in your career you’ll be able to afford the lifestyle you desire… and this will make you happy.

The details may vary if you’re looking for success in a different field like hospitality, music or modelling but the story broadly remains the same. Many of us are driven by the need to succeed and there are plenty of reasons to pursue success. Let me run you through three of them:

First, success motivates you to keep going and to achieve what you might not have thought was possible. Having goals to work towards and achieve can help us to keep trying even when circumstances are working against you. What’s more, setting goals that we aren’t sure we can achieve can stretch us beyond what we thought we were capable of. You might not be a runner and the idea of running a marathon might seem impossible for you… but setting that goal of running a marathon can encourage you to break the task down into smaller pieces and encourage you to keep training even on the cold and rainy days.

Second, success does bring rewards. Success in many areas of life is accompanied by financial rewards. A higher level of income often accompanies achieving professional success and, while money might not be the ultimate good, there is no denying that it can smooth out many of the bumps and challenges that life may bring.

Third, your success can benefit others. Success doesn’t just equate to financial rewards, it can have social and humanitarian impacts. The successful businessperson can provide jobs, the successful doctor can save and improve the quality of others lives and a successful lawyer may defend the rights of others.

So while success didn’t bring Tracy happiness, there are reasons to pursue success!

… and 3 reasons why it still can’t fully satisfy

However while there are reasons someone might chase success, it is worth having a more realistic assessment of success.

First it is an activity that can be driven by fear and insecurity. In the quest to succeed we don’t whether we will succeed or fail. It’s impossible to know when you’ve studied enough, trained enough and once you have passed one goal post the natural question is “where is the next goal post?” If you are driven by success, there is a need to continue to succeed. If you stop you might fail. Even if you keep going, there is no guarantee you will continue to succeed.

Second there are so many factors that contribute to whether we succeed that are out of our control. Who our parents are, what school we go to and whether I’ve got the flu on my exam day are just a couple of examples of things we cannot control but which can have a significant impact on our success. While we need to work hard to succeed, success is, ultimately, not something we can control.

Third, while success is meant to bring us happiness, it often brings unwanted side effects. Others who aren’t as successful can be resentful, the cost of achieving success can impact on other goods like relationships with friends and family and success doesn’t necessarily last.

So it seems that there are plenty of good things about success and it’s worth acknowledging them, but success and personal achievements are not solid foundations to build your life on. That's the point Tracy ended up at. The question we are left with is what role should success have in our lives? And if success isn’t a path to lasting happiness, what is? Jesus tells a short story about a man who lived for success yet failed at life and concludes that there is something more fundamental to life than success and achievement. What do you think is the place of success in life? What makes for a more solid foundation? Post your comments below.

Image courtesy of Blondinrikard Fröberg on flickr.com

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Post script: City Bible Forum runs public talks most weeks during the year. An example by Sam Chan and related to the content of this article can be found here.

You can hear Sam Chan at The Forum in Sydney on Wednesdays and Thursdays.