Happiness is Just a State of Mind……Success Comes In All Shapes & Sizes!

Amruta Goswami Shyam in this touching copy writes why people should try finding happiness in the right places and not always associate it with material happiness. Must read

Success means different things to different people, but in maximum probability if a person is ambitious and career centric , his/her definition of success would be to achieve a certain position in the company by a certain time frame with respect to this age. To add to the position, things like foreign trips , bigger house, bank balance etc would also figure in the list.

Five years back I would have mouthed the same things. But as they say ‘man proposes … god disposes!’ My dad’s heart attack changed my perspective of life drastically!

During the same time, I married my best friend, who was now an army officer. I left my job and joined him at his location. The transition from civil life to army was wonderful, and I took to it like fish to the water.

Most of my well wishers and family were surprised at my decision to leave my job as they knew me as a career oriented person. Some of the usual response s I would get were like  “ what! You left your job?”,”Why did you study so hard to become an engineer, and MBA, and waste it like this?”… and so on , you get the drift .

To be honest, even I was not sure of what I was doing , quitting my job, moving out of Mumbai,  not having a career to fall back on ..sometimes really got me! I am sure all those who had to leave their jobs, for some reason or other, would relate to this.

But then I asked myself ,the basic questions , What did I want out of life? And what did success meant to me? Where does my happiness lay? And like they say, rest is history, the answers really cleared my mind and put new energy and enthusiasm in me.

I loved doing social service activities from very early part of my life. Helping people would make me happy. I started taking active part in the welfare activities ,conducted by AWWA(Army Wives Welfare Association).These are the activities conducted by Army officer’s wife, for the wives of Jawan’s. Most of these women comes from villages and are not that educated or well aware of their rights.

It was here that I made presentations on women education, domestic violence, child welfare etc. I did all this with lots of enthusiasm with lots of pictures and graphs. And to my surprise these presentations were a HUGE success!

My presentations impressed my seniors and the wives of Jawan’s loved it too. They came time and again to tell me how my presentation and information helped them, and how they look forward to the lectures and presentations from me! For me that is SUCCESS!

Also I took up oil painting and stitching (It’s another story…it will need a new article altogether!) recently. These were things I always wanted to do but never had time for. I recently stitched a dress, and when I went to a party wearing it, many came up to me, to ask, from where I had bought it. I was ecstatic! I told them with a smile and humble pride, that I had stitched it! They were pleasantly surprised. That to me is success!

I may not be a great painter , but I do what makes me happy, I draw with my heart and soul and when I see people wanting to buy my paintings, requesting me to make paintings for them, and seeing my paintings adore the walls of their lovely homes …It is success for me!

So what if I might not be working in a big MNC (who knows , one day I might!), but I am definitely successful, because success comes in all kinds of packages and no size fits all, isn’t it? So go ahead and do things that bring smile and happiness to you and others, for life is too short for regrets ! And if we are satisfied and happy with what we do and remain honest to ourselves, then I think that is what can be termed as huge success!

 

Related articles

• Ashanti Speaks About Her Role on Army Wives (Video) (getmybuzzup.com)
• The Army Wives Talk Season-Seven Changes and the “New Little Sass” (eyeoncelebs.com)