A forced definition of Success

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I've been observing a particular tea guy who sets up at the corner of the street. He sits on a blue plastic chair, uses a dented kettle to make over a dozen cups every single day, charges 7 cedis a cup and doesn't drive. He's not famous for anything and doesn't have any awards.

But at around 6:00 PM each day when he pours out his last cup and I know this because by then I'm coming home from work and I greet him, he wraps his hand around the kettle and heads home without any real urgency.

At that same moment, in a high rise glass building on the other side of town, someone is getting ready to be recognized for their promotions from last quarter. Numbers will be on display. Smiles, clapping and they'll take picture after picture, the ones from work, they won't look at again. They will shake hands with their co workers, and as soon as they do, they will reach for their phones.

Success, the way we've agreed to measure it, certainly looks different than satisfaction does.

The tea seller is not better than anyone else or more simplistic than anyone else. He is simply a human being whose reality matches up pretty closely with the life he wants. This is the space where the majority of our frustration, anxiety, trauma and self imposed problem exists. In our society, we are told constantly, this is what you should want and between what we are encouraged to desire and what brings us joy is where most of the world's unnecessary pressure is located.