Success, in case you have never heard of it, is considered most necessary for one’s inner well-being. Personally, I believe in failure.
According to Maya Angelou:
So what is a success? Is it love, family, pride, joy, or money – in this order?
To different people, success means different things, depending on their priorities. Usually, in our lives, we have levels on which we are successful and levels on which we struggle. The latter makes us feel bad about ourselves and therefore we tend to avoid them and invent excuses. But actually, the greatest achievements in life come, when you leave your comfort zone and strive for a new long-term goal.
Based on Maya’s definition, I must say, that I consider myself extremely successful. Most people think of success as a sort of state of perfection. Actually, to me, it means to have a life, that abounds with gratifying experiences and have sound self-esteem.
Some people’s self-esteem is based on external factors: money, car, job, and entertainment options, family…While we really need achievements in order to feel successful, if our success depends heavily on one or several of these factors – it means it can always be taken away from us. Buddhists believe that success is fleeting like everything in the world – people change many situations in their lives. But according to successful people – it is a mode of feeling, which shines through their hearts the entire time – a balancing energy, which helps you connect with most people and perform successfully in many endeavors. Success is dangerous if you cling to it – the material possessions, the fame, and the fancy adventures. When you have the artifacts of success you fear losing them – you are attached to them and attachment causes suffering.
Actually, failure teaches us much more than success. Success is innate to some people, and they are broken when they do not succeed. Does it have to be this way, or one should embrace failure as the birthright to not be perfect?
Perfectionism is an enemy to success. What most people don’t realize is that success doesn’t come easily. Until the moment you manage to achieve your goal, you will experience failure plenty of time.
For instance, if you decide to lose weight, and you are fairly motivated – it’s your dream, and you take baby steps to achieve it… you shouldn’t worry when the scales show bad results after good results.
You should rise, dust off your attire and strive for your dream with all your powers, even when you feel feeble. You should be motivated by failure – it is a temporary thing. When you should fail, do so without loss of your enthusiasm.
In order to feel successful, I spend my time on meaningful activities – I create, I learn, I communicate. My money I spend on romance, charity, or adventures. I have overcome procrastination in a very simple way. I made a folder with my most important goals for the next month and I am switching between those very few activities, which helps me be more prolific. Those projects, at present, are my online portfolio, my blog, my books, my health, and my home. After listing them I have gathered in some folders the materials which will help me in managing these projects. It helps me feel focused and more organized.
I spend my time on any of these and at the end of the day this lets me say: “Wow, I did this today!” However, I do not get the desired results immediately and this makes me disappointed.
At the ripe age of 35, I found out that to fail is a blessing. After failure, you resume your powers and attack the issue with all your might again. For hope is always there for all of us – one of the great three Christian virtues. Therefore, an unsuccessful person means simply someone with broken hopes.
True evolution is not so much related to your “doing,” than to your “being.” It is not what you possess, but what you emanate.
According to the Dalai Lama, one has to live as “a sincere, human being” – a Buddhist definition of success. It stands for a life, in which it doesn’t mean how you make a living, what properties you have, or how much power. What truly matters to a sincere human being is to ease other people’s suffering and strive not to contribute to it. So in order to be a happy person, you must act fairly and benevolently, and avoid hurting others knowingly or otherwise.
