Real Success is Your Social Mission

The above heading I am truly getting.  It is who you are not what you do.   This moves you from career success to human success and a reason for being.  This is the social mission.  It is fantastic when you find it, it is like holding a candle that illuminates your life with deeper meaning.  That is my experience anyway.

I’ve just made a decision to work for free.  To serve the community.  We all think we need money and that tends to be the motivation.  So many choose occupations that will get them as much money as they can earn rather than silently inquiring, what do I truly want to do with my life.  For some they feel their mission so strongly they go and do it.  I am one of those, I had to follow the thread.  For me it was having a dream I was teaching peace.  I left the market research field.  I did grapple with not having money and how to survive.  But funnily I always land on my feet and I ended up creating so many fun experiences.  I found when I shared my gift from the heart, I felt extremely happy.  So not laughing all the way to the bank, but if my emotional or spiritual bank account is where I am gaining wealth then I am a millionaire.  I was thinking yesterday, I wouldn’t exchange it for all the money.  I am happy and I feel so fortunate.  So this is something for you to consider.  To challenge your world view, why not go for your social mission.  Now is the right time.

Here is Dr. Madan Kataria’s message, he was the founder of Laughter Yoga.  What I particularly loved was his musings about not being known and the feeling of enlightenment that his work lives.   This is important because he is not doing it from ego (self gratification) he is doing it from awareness (his true essence).  This is the aliveness many people crave.

http://www.laughteryoga.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6948:real-success-is-about-your-work-not-you&catid=213:my-diary&Itemid=460

Real Success Is About Your Work – Not You

 

In September 2008 I went to visit my wife’s brother Gope in Toronto. On my arrival, he wanted to introduce me to several of his friends so he organized a dinner

party. As we talked and got around, most of his friends discovered that I was the founder of Laughter Yoga. Highly amused, they were eager to get more details about the concept. During our conversations that evening, one guest mentioned that Laughter Clubs has been featured in several Hindi movies and was wondering if the film producers had consulted me before featuring the Laughter Yoga sessions. He was quite upset when I said that I had not been consulted. “At least they should have mentioned your name”, he insisted.

Feeling grateful for her genuine concern, I responded, “It is fine with me if they do not mention my name. The whole concept is to create more awareness, and if the film with its immense popularity has become a medium for spreading the message of laughter in India, as well as to Indians abroad, I am really happy. It’s not about my name. I tried to explain that the laughter movement is a divine movement – it is not just “Dr. Kataria’s Movement” and that a much higher force was working

behind the concept. “It is some kind of spiritual power without which I would not have been able to spread the idea worldwide,” I said.

I cited another incident when in 2005, I had gone to Melbourne, to present a corporate seminar for the Australian Institute of Management, and conduct several Laughter Yoga seminars. My host Merv Neal had become a Laughter Yoga activist following his recovery from a life- threatening illness that had shut down his bone marrow and immune system. He strongly believed that laughter was the catalyst that had turned his condition around.

On our way from the airport to his home, I asked what his profession was and he said he assisted people in writing business plans. When he asked if I had one, I very sheepishly admitted that I had none and nor was I interested is such a thing. I told him Laughter Yoga had become a global phenomenon without any marketing and publicity on my part and that laughter is not my business, it is my social mission.

Although surprised with my statement, Merv continued to push for a business plan, convinced I needed one and lots of money in order to spread the laughter movement much faster. I had never thought about laughter needing a business plan before listening to him, but somehow he swayed me. I asked him if he would help me write one, so for the next two days, together, we developed a great strategy for advancing the Laughter Yoga movement.

Merv introduced me to about 250-300 people at the seminar, then asked, “How many of you have heard about Laughter Clubs?” More than 200 raised their hands. Next question, “How many of you have heard of Dr. Madan Kataria? Maybe 25 responded affirmatively to that question! Merv’s spontaneous response was, “Ladies and gentlemen, here is man who is known more for his work than for himself!”

Surprisingly, I had no bad feelings about not being known, but instead, a wave of enlightenment flooded my heart. Suddenly, I knew that after I die, the Laughter Yoga movement would continue to live, because the movement had grown not because of my personal charisma, but because of the positive benefits derived by those who had experienced the healing power of laughter.

I had always felt that the Laughter Yoga movement had spread like wildfire to so many countries in a very short period of time without advertising and marketing because an undeniable Higher Force was guiding and promoting it. I knew it was not about me, but about the work, the people and the benefits it provided, but that day drove the point home. Yes, laughter has its own wisdom, its own intelligence – I was merely the vessel.

This story is from my New Book Inner Spirit of laughter. You can buy E- Book just for 8.95 USD. Paper book will be available soon.