Are happiness and success the same thing?

In recent years many scientists have looked at happiness in psychological research. Still, happiness is an emotion that makes it subjective or unique to each person and is hard to measure truly. Success can also be subjective. What one person defines as ‘success,’ another may not. While happiness is subjective and difficult to measure, the success we often try to define by comparing ourselves to others.

Happiness and success are often the goals for people, and for many, they believe that through success, they will achieve happiness. It’s hard to separate the two, as they are linked, although different. Success can certainly contribute to feelings of happiness but may not be necessary to experiencing happiness itself.

In some cases, success may even mean that a person sacrifices things that cause them to feel happy to get success. For example, if success meets a deadline, which requires you to miss dinner with friends, an activity that makes you happy, success may be damaging to the feeling of happiness. You might be very successful in your work as a zookeeper, but if your true passion is singing and zookeeping keeps you from singing, then you are likely not as happy as you could be.

If you feel yourself struggling, feeling stressed about life or success, or goals you’re working toward, it may be time to explore your personal definitions of success and happiness. By exploring how you are viewing and approaching these important issues, you can begin to determine which parts of your life are focused on success and which parts contribute to your overall happiness.

One way to do this is with a licensed professional counselor who can help you evaluate goals in a nonjudgmental way and explore how your goals align with what is truly most important to you. Each goal that is reached ultimately clears the way for the next thing to be accomplished. The pursuit of success can ultimately be never-ending. So it’s important to keep it in perspective and cultivate practices, habits, and thoughts that contribute to overall wellbeing and happiness.