Tao Te Ching 44

Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
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If I were putting together a series of daily lessons in a self-help workbook I would be inclined to slip this chapter of the Tao Te Ching in about every third day.

All people seek happiness; and all people seek to avoid suffering. Happiness = accepting life the way it is at the moment. Suffering = desiring life to be other than the way it is at the moment, even though at this moment life cannot be other than as it is. Happiness and suffering are not about the quantity or quality of the people, places and things around us; happiness and suffering are about our response to whatever people, places and things are around us at a given time.

Happiness and suffering are inside jobs. If we’re looking outside to claim the one or disclaim the other, then we’re in for a harrowing trip on a long and winding road. It’s a trip that won’t end well.

The secret to a successful life is captured here – be content with what you have. Realize that there is nothing lacking. When we have this realization, then we possess an untold wealth. The world, literally, is ours.