Watch the Video "What Decides Our Success?" A seeker asks Sadhguru whether luck, fate and God decide our success. Read more to learn what Sadhguru thinks.

Questioner: If we want to succeed in our life which will play a major role Guruji, faith, God, effort or luck?

Sadhguru: Or winning election?

Questioner: If we want to win in election, that our luck is also important.

Sadhguru: Faith, God, luck, effort – maybe all of them, but in what proportion? So when you say fate, obviously it’s something that you cannot do anything about. When you say luck, again obviously it’s something that you cannot do anything about. When you say God, again it’s something that you cannot do anything about. So only thing that’s in your hands is effort. So put your 100% into your effort, what happens happens, isn’t it? So don’t leave proportions of your energy and your capability to luck¸ God, fate, all these things; that’s not your business. If there is such a thing, it will act. Your business is only effort, isn’t it? Just do that. Effort has to be incisive, in the sense, it should be focused, calibrated. Simply if you make effort, it’s foolish effort, isn’t it? Just labor is not going to get you somewhere, right kind of action, the right timing, right place, all this is important, isn’t it?

So for all these things to happen, you need perception and intelligence. So that's all you must do in your life – constantly looking for ways to enhance your perception and your intelligence; rest will anyway happen. This is one thing that unfortunately humanity is not doing. They’re trying to become capable of something. Do not try to become capable of something, just enhance your perception and intelligence, whatever comes your way... Right now, let us say… it’s like this, you know, this is happening in the world all the time. Everybody wants to become a doctor. Not now, if… 25 years ago it was so. If you want to study means first thing is medicine. If you don’t get a seat, what’s next? Engineering. Don’t get a seat, what? Next thing, next thing, like this. So let’s say you became a doctor and let us say everybody came to the yoga program and they stopped going to a doctor. At least your visits to the doctor has come down, isn’t it? Has it? Has it come down or no? For sure it’s come down. So business will go down. It will no more be a good profession to go into because very few doctors are becoming doctors because they want to become doctors. Others are becoming doctors because they think it’s lucrative, isn’t it? Isn’t it so?

Most people are becoming doctors because they think somebody’s sickness is a lucrative business. It’s a very… I don’t want to go into other aspects, it's quiet disturbing for me. There are a few doctors who really want to be that, they want to understand the human system and they want to serve in that direction, that’s great. Suppose everybody became healthy – you don’t want that, isn’t it? Yes, you don’t want that. So do not try to put up a recipe for your success. Success is only when you’re able to use yourself to your full potential. It doesn’t matter whether you become a doctor or a politician or a yogi or what the hell you become is not the thing. Success means you are living your life to your full potential, that’s what success means. If that has to happen, you need perception and an active intelligence. ‘How do I grow my intelligence?’ Don’t worry about that. Right now the important thing is to enhance your perception. If you’re able to see life just the way it is, you have the necessary intelligence to conduct it well. If you’re not able to see life the way it is, your intelligence will work against you. Most intelligent people on this planet are generally the most miserable people on the planet. This is simply because they have an active intelligence but no perception of life. So one thing, one most important thing that people have not worked at is to enhance their perception. They’re trying to broaden their mind – that’s not the point; that will only make you socially successful, not truly successful. If you want to be truly successful, you must be able to see everything just the way it is, without distortions. If you can see everything just the way it is, life becomes a play; you can play it joyfully, you can play it well for sure. If you can play it well people will say you’re successful. You should never think ‘I want to be successful.’ Don’t ever think ‘I want to be successful.’ Just see how to make this being into a full-fledged being. People will say one day, ‘Oh, he is successful, he’s a great success.’ You should not be aspiring for success; it’s a miserable way to structure your life. You will simply cause pain and suffering to yourself and suffering to everybody because your idea of success is sitting on top of somebody’s head, isn’t it? Yes or no? Your idea of success is right now everybody should be below you, you must be on the top – this is your idea of success. This is not success, this is sickness. So do not ever think of success. Just see how to make this into a full-fledged being; this will find expression. If it finds good expression¸ people around you will say, ‘Oh, he is a great success!’ That’s fine. People should recognize you’re a success. You should not be thinking how to be successful; very wrong way to approach life.