The path to success, how to find it
What is our perception about success? How can we truly become successful?
The most basic struggle of human kind is to fight to become successful in life. But have we ever thought, what is actually the meaning of success, what do we mean when we say success, or successful person?
In todays’ world, the perceived success is defined mainly by the ones that have power in their control, or those that control our mind and time the most. I mean, today, success is perceived social media and other mediums tell us what it really means. And this is not a small problem in itself. Because it instills in us, a particular way of copying others and trying to emulate them in order to become like them. This in turn may bring enormous pressure and slowly take away the many good things we truly possess, like peace of mind, harmony, content, happiness, to name a few.
This may tell us that, success is different for different people, no single individual on this planet is similar to the other in terms of the very different characteristics that define us, therefore each individual has different goals and ideas about life. But this is the beauty of this life, we can be happy and successful in our own ways, it doesn’t have to be what others tell us how to become such, but we can lead our own way towards what makes us feel better. For someone success means achieving wealth, fame, or status, whereas for someone else, success can also be personal and can refer to achieving self-esteem, personal development, or inner peace.
We are learning that success is among other things, a feeling, a feeling of content, that tells us we did something right.
Success doesn’t mean copying what someone else is doing as a metric of your worth (I refer those who share online news about a promotion, an engagement, a new car, or an extravagant vacation). If you use a comparison of achievements as a regular practice, most probably you are following an unhealthy and toxic life practice. It is obvious what your mind tells you to do next: immediately look at ourselves to see how we size up “that friend of mine just bought a new house. Why don’t I have that at my age? What’s wrong with me?” That’s not to say that comparison has no benefit.
Mentors and role models can serve as great sources of inspiration. They demonstrate leadership qualities, and show the steps toward achieving big long term goals and proving that it can be done, at any age. However, more often though, comparing yourself to others will leave you feeling dissatisfied and inadequate. It causes you to lose sight of your strengths and accomplishments. Comparison gives a skewed version of reality that highlights your insecurities while exaggerating the success of other people.
Stop comparing your blooper reel to everyone else’s highlight reels.
When you see someone who seems to have it all, you don’t see the full picture. People project their best achievements and rarely expose their painful failures. In other words, you see the highlights — a splendid mosaic of achievements, distinctions, and talents. The wrong kind of comparison puts attention on the assets of other people, rather than focusing on your strengths and goals. Getting caught up in other peoples’ achievements causes you to lose sight of your values. You wind up chasing someone else’s dreams rather than pursuing your version of success.
The path to prosperity begins by finding out: what it means to you?
Let`s do a simple exercise: close your eyes and imagine your life the way you would like it to turn out. Picture what it looks like when you are performing at your best, embody the characteristics you admire and convince yourself for a moment as you have accomplished everything you wanted. To make the tour more interesting, take a piece of paper and spend a few minutes writing down what you see from above. Simply list all the milestones you have achieve in different areas of your life. List the principles, habits, career path, relationships, and possessions that define this version of you.
When you’re finished writing, ask yourself these questions: do the goals and attributes in your list align with your values? Are these your goals, or are they based on the expectations of someone else? If you follow this exercise carefully, you will discover a real you.
This process of assessing what you imagine against what you truly desire is powerful. It enables you to highlight goals that mean the most to you, and stop chasing the ones that don’t matter. You will notice that some items on your list stand out more than others. Think of these as your main dreams and aspirations. Success means moving towards these goals.
At the same time, other items will feel less important. When you examine why you want those things, you may realize, you don’t. Superficial goals and chasing someone else’s dream will lead you further away from success, while forgetting to live the present moment that might be counted as the best success in your life, but you might not be aware of. The truth is success is in now, failure is an illusion. As Eckhart Tolle says: “Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success”.
Becoming aware what you are capable of doing with authentic approach, self-contentment and pure intention, are the basics for successful moment and a happy life. You are a success already, that aplomb hardship with ease and embrace the love to find the truth.
Ⓒ Mindfluent