For a long time I believed in the usual order of things. Work hard, get the results, and happiness would turn up at the end like a prize. Most of us are taught this early. More money, more recognition, a bigger title, and then one day we are allowed to feel good about it.
These days I think that order is backwards.
I am in a job now where I genuinely love what I do. I wake up wanting to get stuck in. And what surprised me is that the better I feel about the work, the better the work gets. I see where I can help, I speak up more, I follow things through, and I can actually feel that I am bringing value to the organisation. Nobody had to push me to get there. The joy came first, and the results followed.
That is not the same as saying ambition is bad. I still want us to do better, grow, and hit our targets. But I have stopped treating happiness as something I will earn later. If I am only happy once I have “made it”, then I will probably be waiting a very long time, because the finish line keeps moving.
Think of the TV repairman uncle. He has been at it for thirty years, and his shop is so full of faulty electronics that it spills all the way out to the kaki lima. It is not glamorous work, and it has not made him rich. But people bring him something that has stopped working and walk away with something that works again, and he goes home content. Then one day someone offers him a bigger deal that would pay more but take the joy out of it. That choice is harder than it sounds, and many of us have faced our own version of it.
What I have learned is that we are allowed to define success on our own terms. It does not have to look like what everyone else is chasing. Success without happiness is a very lonely win. But happiness without the usual trophies can still be a full life.
So here is what I would ask you to think about over your next cup of tea. Do you look forward to what you do? Do you go home at the end of the day with a bit of peace? If the answer is yes, even most days, then maybe you are already doing better than you think.
