“Maybe the most successful people are known by very few” Wu Wei.

The pressure to be something can get very tiring. When I talk to some people it seems to be so important to them and they are not happy until they get a step closer to being successful in some way.

Social media seems to be full of people telling us we can be a better version of a human if we make more money, lose more weight, gain more muscle, meditate more, donate more and society tells us we must make friends, socialise, grow our circle find love, get that type of job, house and lifestyle….then we can be happy.

Really?

Is that Happiness? Is that success?

What value could you put on a good conversation? Or sitting on a bench looking at a natural view or your own city skyline. Those little chats you have with a shopkeeper ( a dying art I know, it’s hard to get a hello back in some cases), or at the water cooler or in the queue in the market are all adding up to a longer life. It has even been shown to help decrease dementia symptoms and increase life expectancy. Imagine, a daily few chats have that power and they are free. I often chat in the gym and it’s so interesting to hear people’s stories.

I get to walk my dogs every morning in the woods a 5 minute drive from my house and even though I’d often rather stay in bed a bit longer I always come back feeling great, having been in nature for 30-40 minutes, which has been shown to be as beneficial as a daily meditation practice and even therapy.

These simple things add a huge amount to my life and yet they are not considered a measure of success according to what I grew up thinking success was. Do we need to rethink what we call success and not feel so pressured to constantly strive for success when happiness may simply be just be a walk or a chat away?

This was written with an understanding of how lucky I am too and that there are many people who do not have the luxury of not worrying about losing the roof over their heads, their health or their next meal.