Success and Power: Keys to True Fulfillment

Monday, 05 May 2025 Written by Judith Orloff MD

Exploring the Multifaceted Nature of Success and Power exploring-success-and-power.

Success and power have many facets.

You can have every material success in the world and still not be happy. Happiness comes from within and without.

As a psychiatrist and empath, I respect that each person has different values and needs. Because of this, I know never to judge a person’s happiness simply by how they appear to the world.

What does success mean to you? I have a wide definition of success–your job is just one part of it. I’m defining success as coming from both outer and inner sources, though outer success alone is flimsy when it’s not matched by the sense of worth you feel inside. Success involves doing as well as being. It’s becoming integrated and whole.

Success is when you give your all, then let go of the results. Whether or not you land the job, the relationship, or any goal, each outcome offers an elegant lesson in surrender. My Daoist teacher says, “If you have never met failure, you have never succeeded.” As painful as it feels, sometimes you try your best but don’t succeed. Though failure can be a blow to your ego and heart, learning to deal with it successfully, without getting hopeless or cynical, is a sign of a truly powerful person. Thus, success is the art of wielding power with humility and a sense of the sacred so your ego won’t be seduced by it–this goes for family, at work, or anywhere.

What is power? How can you constructively harness it? Power is strength. In the world, it’s your ability to get things done, to affect people, to create positive change, to achieve a quality of life; sometimes it’s simply having a hand to hold. It’s also the command you have over yourself, your emotions, your weaknesses. It’s the awareness that if something isn’t working in your life, you can make a change. However, your power comes from drawing inwardly on spiritual forces too. It’s an elegant balance, to be in the world, but not of it, to tell the difference between light and shadow powers–then choose which to follow.

Success involves your ability to tap and surrender to the different sources of power, both material-world and spiritual, and use them for the good. It’s a path to contentment instead of constant frenetic striving.

Here are 3 Essential Keys to Success from my book, The Power of Surrender:

• Be proud of who you are, not just what you have.
• Appreciate the value of the love you offer to yourself and others.
• Embody the good and do good in the unique sphere of your life. No act is too small to be meaningful.

To claim your full power, the kind that strengthens with time, you must address the above three points in a surrendered way, not holding on too tightly to anything. But, you must also reach further than the physical world to tap what’s deep within you. If you don’t, you’ll wrongly perceive that the money, the position, or the degree are the only successes that matter, the only markers that can make you feel powerful, an illusion of our linear mind, which is notoriously blind to its own limitations.

Adapted from The Power of Surrender by Judith Orloff, MD

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