We focus so much on our external accomplishments that we forget to improve ourselves from within. Our values are such that we are always externally driven. We think, “What will people consider as success? What will people think as good?” So when people call us good we become happy, when they call us bad we become sad.

We need to change our values. We need to focus on becoming internally driven. Learn to decide your principles, and get motivated by your own principles. When you do this, you will continue to do your good work but you will not hanker for material accomplishments.  Hankering for material accomplishments is like a wild goose chase.

Think about how many years of your life have gone by hankering for material accomplishments. When you were studying you thought, “Let me get a job and I will be happy”. You got a job. Then you thought, “I am only a trainee, let me get confirmed and I’ll be happy”. You got confirmed. Now you thought – “Right now I am not happy.  If I go to America I will be happy”.  So you came to America, started living in a condo in Irving, but you are still not happy.  You are still thinking, “If I get a house in Frisco I will be happy.  Or maybe I need a bigger house in Plano. Then I’ll be happy”.  This chase will end only with death.

We have to decide that the happiness we want is not in those external material accomplishments. Happiness is being internally driven by values of love and devotion for God. It is in the purification of our minds that will ultimately take us closer to God. Let us change our paradigm and our value system. Let us focus on improving ourselves, and the external accomplishments will automatically follow.

Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from Swami Mukundananda’s lecture series on the Science of Mind Management.