What is to be Successful in Your Life and Live Truly Happily?

Sunday, August 30, 2009 - Osaka, Japan

Today we have a general election for the lower house Japan, marking a historically meaningful day in Japan’s history, and this could well to be a good opportunity to think what it is to be happy and to be successful in our lives.

Unlike all other elections we had, many Japanese citizens including myself have been paying much interest in this election because the voices of each of us is possible to determine the leading party for this election, and change to improve the society which we live in.

Improvement in the society we live in is a key element for all of us to be happy. And we had been attentive to this election sincerely hoping that the new political measures under the new administration would change the fundaments are vital to solve pending issues including finance, economy, employment, pension, welfare, education, environment to name a few. Solution to such issues would highly contribute to making us much happier. But, what does it mean to be happy?

Being happy is to be successful in one’s life, and success in one’s life is nearly equals to success in one’s career for most of us.

Definition of “success” should be different for everyone because each of us is different. We all have different value, belief, interest and uniqueness, and objectives/mission of our life and our lifework that we pursue as we go along in our life journey aligns with our value, belief, interest and uniqueness. Having said that, the definition of success in life and to live happily can be summarized as “Unleashing one’s potential in one’s desirable environment to achieve tangible outcome one is happy with (not necessarily monetary), contributing to the organization, community and/or society one belongs to.”

The key to succeed in life and live happily can be summarized as below.

1) Physically and economically healthy:
There are no argument on this, is there?

2) Self branding:
This is the starting point of defining your success, goal and mission in your life, and deciding what your lifework is. Extensive self analysis is inevitable. Strategy and brand management framework and approaches can be used, similarly to branding of a company or an entity.

3) Networking:
This is about being connected with people with whom you can learn and grow mutually. Like brand, this is an intangible asset that is built on trust and requires time. This is vital for self marketing and let the world know about you, who you are and so forth. In today’s ubiquitous networking world, leveraging web 2.0 social media tools world really helps although face-to-face networking and conversation still plays an important role and you need to effectively mix and utilize them both.

4) Work you enjoy and your happiest challenges:
You should not be pushed aside by the work and challenges the general public highly evaluates but those you truly enjoy and means to you, aligning with your value and interest. Base on personal branding and “career drift” concept, create your career and land on the role/position you really desire, the role/position that is meaningful to you, and engage in challenges you are happy with. Challenges may not be what you had been doing nor what you are good at first but if you like them and are happy with them, you usually pick up the skills quickly. Work you enjoy and happiest challenges lead to motivation, high performance and your growth.

5) Desirable work environment with supportive boss(es) and cooperative colleagues:
The definition of “desirable work environment” depends on the individual but for many people, the important points include clear mission and goal of the organization, open and interactive communication, simple processes and systems and chemistry/fitting with the organization’s culture. Supportive bosses and cooperative colleagues creating a teamwork spirit usually comes with desirable work environment, which increases your motivation, an important driver along with your skills, competencies etc. (and perhaps the only driver that can be positive or negative) to maximize your performance and leverage organizational capability, leading to high performance of you as an individual and the organization you belong to.

6) Work-life balance:
Life is not only about career or work. Positive effect outside work usually has positive effects on work leading to synergy.

7) Understanding and cooperation from your family, and “true” friends:
There are no argument on this, is there? A friend in need is a friend indeed.

After all, it is each of us that “own” our lives and career path. Each of us is to strategically positioning ourselves in the world we live in and is responsible for creating our own lives and career.

There may well be room for addition and improvement.
Your comments are more than welcome.