Finding the Life Balance between Fulfillment and Success

by Tom Hinton

At a recent corporate workshop I facilitated on Work-Life Balance, a senior executive with the company asked me a tough question. Our exchange went something like this. “I’ve been working here for the past 30 years. I’m now 55, and even though I have a senior management position in this company, and make good money, and I’ve traveled the world, I don’t feel successful. What’s missing in my life?”

Although we had never met before, I reflected on his question for a moment and then replied, “I think sometimes we confuse success with fulfillment and happiness. It seems you have all the trappings of success, but what appears to be missing in your life is a sense of fulfillment.” He nodded affirmatively and encouraged me to expound on my answer. I did; and, here’s what I shared with the participants at that workshop.

One of the questions The Course of 10,000 Days encourages us to answer is the following: “How much happiness am I willing to forego in order to achieve success?” This is a tough question for us because we’re used to having it all without having to sacrifice anything. But, the truth is success comes with a price.

We all know people who are very successful, but are miserable. They have lots of money, power and fame, but few real friends. They have rank and privilege, but no one really loves them for who they really are. This is the dilemma that many – but not all --successful people face. Why?

The Course of 10,000 Days explains it this way. Before you seek success, you should first create abundance in your life. Only when you experience the blessings of life, true happiness and peace-of-mind can you enjoy success. Too often, we measure success in terms of the ego’s needs – money, power, fame, prestige and all the trappings that success can buy us. But, abundance is rooted not in material things, but in those things that allow us to be truly happy and experience peace-of-mind. Under such circumstances, we could experience abundance and still be earning minimum wage. Abundance is achieved not through our ego, but rather, our Inner Spirit. Thus, it is our Inner Spirit that we must turn to in order to find those things that create happiness and peace-of-mind in our life. Our ego does not care about such things. It only enjoys the trappings of success. But, such things do not satisfy the human spirit for long. This is why we yearn for something more permanent, more satisfying. And, that something is abundance in our life.

While The Course of 10,000 Days embraces the motto, “Ask and you shall succeed!” it teaches us that in order to attain true success, we must ask our Inner Spirit, not our ego.

About the Author: Tom Hinton is the author of the new best-seller: 10,000 Days: The Rest of Your Life, the Best of Your Life. Tom is one of America’s most respected authors and speakers on Work-Life Balance, Personal Development and Human Excellence in the Workplace. To order 10,000 Days, visit: http://www.amazon.com/10-000-Days-Rest-Your/dp/0983503214/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326344004&sr=1-1 or contact Tom at: tom@tomhinton.com