Chief Joseph: Success is doing, being whatever brings you joy

Sentinels of the Sky
Conversations with Chief Joseph
Those Wild and Lonely Places

John Cali

I've really loved my time here in New York with my family and old friends from the distant past. I am richly blessed to have such loving, caring folks in my life.

But I've sorely missed my home in Wyoming. I've missed its vast, wide-open spaces and big blue skies. I've missed its endless, rolling plains and its mystical mountains soaring into the heavens. I've missed the silent nights when I can look up and see all the bright, twinkling stars in the velvety blackness, the spectacular northern lights, and the full moon casting its golden glow over the mountains and valleys.

I've missed the peace and quiet I can find only in a place where people don't crowd each other into craziness. I've missed all the wild creatures -- the deer grazing in my back yard, the rabbits darting across the fields in my little mountain town, the coyotes on the hilltops howling into the night skies.

As one of the verses in that old cowboy song, Home on the Range, puts it:

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light of the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

I've missed that glory. I've missed those wild and lonely places that are my home, that are a part of me -- and I a part of them. I need the silence and the solace of the open spaces only a place like Wyoming can give me. Those wild and lonely places live in me, and I in them.

Here’s Chief Joseph.

Chief Joseph

We define success as finding all the joy you can in your life. Joy is your purpose in this lifetime. And so if you achieve your purpose, you’re a success. Makes sense, doesn't it?

And so we would define your path to success as doing, being whatever brings you joy.

Friends, you create your own realities. You’ve heard us say that many times over many years.

The best way you can create the reality you want (and not what someone else wants for you) is to seek only joy. Seek joy in every aspect of your life, your relationships, your work, your home -- in every part of your life, seek only joy.

If something or someone is not bringing you joy, then it’s time to move beyond that something or someone.

Joy is what it’s all about. The more joyful you are, the more successful you are. Joy connects you to your higher self, to all your desires, to the Universe. In your joy, you are a great success. And in your joy, you will be empowered to manifest all your heart’s desires.

For many years, John lived in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. That served him well when he first went there. But, as time passed, he began seeing his life in that place was no longer serving him -- no longer bringing him joy.

So he took a leap of faith, if you will, and moved to a place he loved. A place that nurtures his spirit, that arouses his passion -- in short, a place that brings him joy. And, as we see it, that is the perfect place for him, and the place he will likely remain in for the rest of his earthly life.

Our point here, friends, is this: You will never find a happy life by doing anything you cannot find joy in. Joy is where it’s at -- pure and simple.

If the city brings you joy, that’s where you belong. If your lover brings you joy, that’s where you belong. If your home brings you joy, that’s where you belong.

And if any one or more of those bring you no joy, that’s not where you belong.

John found the wild and lonely places that bring him joy. And so too must you seek out the places, the people, the work -- everything and anything -- that bring you joy.

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P.S. from John: I did not expect Joseph to talk so much about me personally. That’s rare. But then, I never know what Joseph will say. (Big smiley)

Sentinels of the Sky: Conversations with Chief Joseph
http://www.greatwesternpublishing.org
Copyright © 2006 Great Western Publishing. Article printed with permission of John Cali.