A key question that we may ask frequently is what is success in life? It's not only a philosophical question, it's very real! Is it making lots of money? Having happy relationships? Both? In this article, I will suggest a way of thinking about what is success in life and how to be on the path to achieve it if you don't already feel successful.

Most people who ask the question what is success in life are thinking about success as a goal to be achieved. The very first thing that we must realize is that success in life is a process, not a list of accomplishments. When we are happily developing ourselves every day by learning and going through the experiences that life throws at us, we are already successful in a way that a rich person who is miserable and doing destructive drugs is not.

An interesting quote is: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

By being happy or making the conscious effort to be happy, you are already on the way to being successful.

In reality, we may not find a general definition of success. The answer to what is success in life is very unique and very personal. For some it might be to travel the world, for others it might be to help others or to have great relationships.

Despite the fact that how we define success is unique and personal to each one of us, there is a general agreement among experts who research what is success in life. They all say that you have to know yourself.

The explosion of the market for self-help books attests to this fact. We are looking for all types of ways to know ourselves better. And indeed, the number of ways is very numerous.

But there is one way that I think is fundamental. It's to apply ourselves to grow spiritually.

What does spiritual growth have to do with what is success in life?

When we are on a spiritual path, we learn in the process to be peaceful and to choose high qualities such as generosity, sharing, being less selfish etc. In the process, we become happier and by being happier all the time, we also have happier thoughts most of the time.

If we remember the popular book and movie The Secret, we will remember that according to the Law of Attraction, what we think about on a regular basis, what we focus on is what we get in our lives. If we have happy thoughts most of the time, how can we not be successful? This is the answer to what is success in life. It is very simple but may be difficult to apply!