That leads to the dilemma. Do we only get to keep one? Is it either happiness or success? Or is there a way to acquire both? It depends on how you define “happiness” and how you define “success”. If you ask me, my answer would be: “Happiness is when you wake up in the morning and you can have a cup of coffee without the crippling anxiety about your future and without the suffocating regret about your past. Success is when you have built the life you have envisioned for yourself. My vision of a dream life consists of a career in the space industry, an above average income, traveling around the world, a healthy body, a husband that shares a similar vision, raising my children to be responsible citizens and giving them quality education without a financial burden (meaning they won’t be limited to scholarships and stuff).”

What I tried to say is that chaos is an inseparable part of human life and instead of fighting it, I need to embrace it, and learn how to live in chaos. I am not only referring to external factors like deadlines and social roles, but also internal stuff like self-doubt and self-image. We can’t always praise ourselves or always hate ourselves. Periods in life are different and so is our self-perception. That’s why our own opinion about ourselves can’t be a rational assessment of our abilities. This leads to the Dunning-Kruger Effect but that’s out of topic and may be a discussion for another chapter.

#thejourney@altynmind