Success is the ability to fulfill our desires with effortless ease
We need a more spiritual approach to success and to affluence, which is the abundant flow of all good things to us.
Throughout the months of March and April, we are dedicating this Fearless Journeys book club to gaining insights from Deepak Chopra’s classic work, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.
This week, we focus on what the author has to say about success, as outlined in the introduction to the book.
Take a moment and reflect on that word: success.
What comes to your mind when you think of “success?” What would it mean to YOU to be successful?
Pause here for a moment and reflect on that. Really breathe that in.
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While most of us may not want to admit it, for most of us — success comes down to something material. Maybe it is a successful career, one that gives us opportunity to make enough money to live a nice life. We may not necessarily think “success” means we have to be rich or famous, but most of us want to be living well above just having the basic needs of life.
I can tell you the first time I bought a house, I felt I had reached a point of success. Home ownership. The American Dream. My own little homestead. Nothing necessarily wrong with that.
But it’s not enough.
Deepak Chopra says “there are many aspects of success, material wealth is only one of them.”
He adds that success might include “good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, and a sense of well-being.”
“Success is the ability to fulfill our desires with effortless ease.”
Yet, these things are still very much external.
While a fulfilling relationship is something more than “material wealth,” it is still something that is external. While it’s important to be grateful for “good health,” some of which is in our control, there is still so much of health that can be out of our control, such as an illness or disease — both of which are unexpected.
Chopra says “we need a more spiritual approach to success and to affluence, which is the abundant flow of all good things to us.”
In other words, how efficiently, how effortlessly do we co-create with the universe?
The ancient sages have always begun at the source and they defined the source as pure potentiality.
Chopra adds that “The beauty of beginning at the source is that power resides there — the power of our inner being, the power of our spirit.”
“In every seed lies the power of the forest.”
That’s beautifully said — and it’s also so deep when we ponder it.
The seed may or may not know it can become a forest. But it can. It just doesn’t happen overnight. It must be planted, watered, and taken care of before it becomes one tree, and then another, and then one day — perhaps years or decades from now — a forest.
What’s great about this concept of pure potentiality is that the physical laws of the universe support it. That seed is supposed to become a forest — by its very nature.
“The physical laws of the universe are actually the process by which the unmanifest, unknown, and invisible is transformed into the manifest, known, and visible.”
“If we give our deeper instincts a chance, success in life is not only possible, but inevitable.”
But here we are back to that big word: success.
Our dreams. Our desires. How can they be fulfilled? That’s where we begin. That’s where the Seven Spiritual Laws come in. When we understand these laws, and apply them to our lives, anything we want can be created.
Are you a believer yet?
We’re going to spend the next 7 weeks going through each of these laws slowly and find ways to incorporate them in our daily living so we too can tap into the physical laws of nature and co-create with the universe.
If you haven’t done so yet pick up this book and get reading. The entire book can be read in about an hour.