Adapted from: The Power of Shema by Rabbi Meyer Yedid

We want to succeed at everything we do in our lives. If we thought that we couldn’t succeed at something, then we probably wouldn’t do it.

If so, how does a person guarantee that he will be successful? Is there some formula we can use to know that we are on our way to success?

And not only success, but pleasure too?

Let me pause to make myself perfectly clear: To the American mind, “success and pleasure” describes easy street, a life of leisure with nothing to do. That’s not what I’m talking about. I am not saying that life will be easy. Life wasn’t meant to be easy. But even if it is not easy, you can still live a successful and enjoyable life.

So, again, is there a way to make sure that, when I get involved with something, I am going to succeed and I am going to enjoy it?

I’m going to give you a rule. The rule is:

If you do it lishmah, then you will succeed and you will love it.

When I say lishmah, I mean doing it for the right reason. Whatever you involve yourself with in life, if you do it for the right reason, then you will succeed. And you will love it.

Let me state the rule the other way around: Whatever you’re involved with, if you do it for the pleasure, then (A) you will probably not succeed, and (B) you will probably not enjoy it.

I’ll give you an example.

Let’s talk about going to school. When you go to class lishmah, it’s a different class. It’s a different school experience. But you might ask: What does that mean? How would I go to school lishmah?

Lishmah in school means that I’m going to school because I realize I need to learn. I need wisdom to succeed in life. I realize that, in order to become successful, I have to know many things in many areas. So I am going to school to get that.

Imagine a seventh- or eighth-grader, or a high school student, whether a boy or a girl, going to school lishmah. Do you have any idea what going to school lishmah would be like as opposed to shelo lishmah? When you go to school lishmah, you become a great student, you succeed. No matter what level you’re on, you succeed and you love it. You love going to school.

If you do it shelo lishmah — you’re going to school because your parents told you to go, or because you have no choice — then your rate of success will plummet and you won’t enjoy it either. You won’t like it because you’re not lishmah.

I once told a group of students that they would enjoy their school experience much more if they were lishmah.

And they said, “But we don’t see the value in school. How can we be lishmah?”

So, before I continued, I asked for their forgiveness in advance. And then I said, “I’m going to argue with you. I can prove to you that you see the value in school.”

I then asked them, “Do you plan to get married and have children one day?”

“Yes.”

“When you have children, will you send them to school?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not nice,” I said. “If you are suffering by going to school, why would you make your kids suffer?” I asked them, “Would you send them to, like, a camp type of school, or a real school with real work?”

“No, no; the best school.”

“Would you want your children to do well in school?”

“Of course.”

“But you said you see no value in school. It’s not true. Of course, you see value in school!”

A great man told me something years ago that he said changed his life. In many ways, it changed my life too. He said that, at a young age, someone told him that when you have to make a decision in life, especially an important one, make believe you’re making this decision for your children. Don’t decide for yourself. When you decide for your children, you will realize, all of a sudden, how much clarity you really have. When it comes to yourself — because you’re lazy, because you have certain things that block or bias you — you don’t see straight.

Think about your children. That’s how you should make decisions. The option which is truly lishmah will then be clear and no longer clouded by your personal limitations and biases, and your chances to succeed and enjoy the journey will be so much greater.