Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

You’re getting ready to graduate and like most of us you’re probably thinking about having a successful life and career. I’m going to share a secret with you: Pursue happiness and success will follow.

How does this work? You tend to be more successful when you do things which you love doing, thus encouraging yourself to feel more confident in your ability to do other things.

When you are having fun and feeling confident in yourself, it’s easier to work and collaborate with other, again allowing you to feel more successful. When you like what you’re doing and interested in it, you are more likely to spend the time to increase your knowledge about it and related areas, again making you feel more successful.

On the other hand, when you focus on success, it often gets defined as more money, a bigger house, a higher position or a new bigger car. The problem is that these things can begin to define you, and as you look around and there is always someone else with a bigger, better, newer something which leads you to be dissatisfied with what you have.

Instead, if you are having fun doing what you love, you’ll find that you have the things in your life that really mean something to you and you can enjoy them because they don’t own you.

Think about this; did Bill Gates get to be so successful because he said "I want to make a billion dollars," or did he say "I have this really cool idea and I’m going to build it and sell it?" Whether you end up making a bazillion dollars or not, remember what Henry Ford's quote, "Quality is Job 1."  I think we should change that to "Happiness is job 1."

Have fun and be successful!

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"Smiley detail" courtesy renaissancechambara via Flickr Creative Commons