For some, god is money, fame, power or safety. For others, god is simply enough food to eat, some education for their children or a place to live that doesn't flood when the rains come. For some, the party this weekend is god. The rest of the stuff they do all week is only to facilitate the fun.
Whatever god is to us, it changes our life. Our god becomes the lens through which we see everything else. For one who seeks money, a promotion means a raise. To the one who seeks power, a promotion means control. To the one who seeks the party, a promotion (and the responsibility, commitment and effort it represents) may actually be a distraction that interferes with god and life.
But most of the gods people seek are pretty empty. If the seeker actually asks the question, "So What?", it becomes obvious that all of the seeking, working, trying, failing and succeeding are pretty shallow. Even if I succeed in my quest to have a lot of money, I can't take it with me when I die, and I have to now spend every waking moment making sure thieves don't steal it.
Most of us play a game in life that we lose, even if we win. For many, the things we seek don't matter, and we spend our lives attaining that which we will lose.
To seek something better: A Life that matters not only now but forever, is to seek God. But how? Where do we look? How can we possibly connect with anything that matters forever, that is bigger than our own lives, that is more significant than our checking account balance and more effective than whatever fad diet I'm trying this year? Seeking God, intentionally and diligently, becomes a quest that changes the way we view and do everything else.
The best answer I have found is the Christian story. In it, I find a God who created everything, who reached out to me so that I could connect to Him, who loves me as a man loves his child or wife, who wants me to know Him and who has a plan not only for me and my life, but also for all of mankind and the universe as a whole.
If someone else is interested in seeking God instead of god, my advice is to read the book of John in the bible. Read it and let it tell its story, without tripping over every pronoun or overthinking every verb. Read John and meet God who loves people and is competent and eager to show us what life is about and how to participate in it the way we were created to do. After reading John, if you want to know more read the whole New Testament - again without overthinking it. Just let it tell its story. Let it say what it says without all of the religious interference or secular skepticism. There is time for all of that later.
Before you know it, you will see life through a different perspective than the gods you have been serving before could ever show you. It's a great trip.