You gotta love love, don't you? Maybe the Beatles were right. Isn't it great that so many people from so many places can come together (blogospherically) and connect and reach out to someone else? No agenda, no ulterior motive; just love, compassion and care.

It's nice.

Sometimes us personal development-types need to take off our high-achiever hats for a minute and put on our compassionate human being hats. Yes, we can wear both, but periodically we lose perspective about what is really important. Sometimes we're so busy striving for amazing that we ignore or don't see the incredible that we have right now.

When we strip our existence here on the big blue ball down to the bare bones, we don't really need stuff. I'm not talking about food and shelter; I'm talking about toys, trophies, and excess. We need to love and be loved; to be needed, wanted, and desired. We pretend we don't. We try to convince other and ourselves that we don't, but we do.

The irony is that some of us spend a lifetime accumulating stuff that doesn't make us happy, fulfilled or successful, and then we come the full circle and say, "All I want is someone to love me."

So many people tell me they had success — the love of someone special — but didn't know it, see it, appreciate it, or enjoy it. It came to an end for whatever reason and then all that mattered was to get it back - the affection, attention, and love.

Pity we sometimes have to lose something or someone to know what we've got or had. Try and find someone who is totally unloved and happy. Good luck with that. You'll be looking for a long time.

Want to find someone who's poor and happy? No problem. Someone who's fat and happy? Someone who's physically or intellectually handicapped and happy? No problem. Someone who is intelligent, wealthy, good looking, unloved and happy? Ain't gonna happen.

We know success is different things for different people, but perhaps the closest we can get to a universally acceptable definition of success is simply to love and be loved; full-stop.

"Oh yes Craig, but life's not that simple." Maybe life is that simple. Maybe we make it complex. Maybe us self-helpers sometimes miss the point.

Yes we live in a practical world where deadlines need to be met, boxes ticked, and bills paid, but perhaps when we step away from our practical commitments and to-do lists, the emotional reality of the human experience (we are largely emotional beings) is that we are simply happiest when we love and are loved in return.

Maybe sometimes we do complicate the simple. Maybe sometimes we do overlook the obvious. Maybe sometimes we do invest our energy in the wrong places.

Maybe Great-Grandpa and Grandma Harper, who never read The Seven Habits (no disrespect to Stephen Covey), never had a property portfolio, never had six percent body-fat, never attended a workshop, and never owned a house on the beach, but just happened to spend fifty-something happy, loving years together. Maybe they (along with Ringo, Paul, John and George) understood (and lived) what we sometimes overlook: success is not a head thing; it's a heart thing.

While I'm not so ideal or naive as to suggest that success (happiness, fulfillment, and contentment) is all about love, it's my contention (your honour) that maybe it is the most important ingredient.