I found it – the key to happiness and success.  All this time we’ve all been looking for it, and here it is in a short 5-minute blog post.  Enjoy.

“Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.” 

– Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning.

Last week I wrote about our work, the 80,000-100,000 hours we spend in our lifetime engage in something we are hopefully passionate about.

This quote from Frankl raises the questions – Do you feel happy?  Do you perceive yourself as successful?

If not, what are you doing about it?  Finding meaningful work is the key.  It’s not about how much money your work pays you, or how much happiness it brings you – it’s about spending those hours engaged in a task or tasks you find meaningful.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should quit your job tomorrow and join the Peace Corps.

No, sometimes finding meaningful work is about us bringing passion and meaning to the work we do, rather than going in search of something different.  That is the key – how do YOU bring meaning to your work?