The Elusive Attribute Of Success

Was recently speaking to a friend whom I’d not seen in a long while and in the course of our conversation, something hit me quite hard like never before- it hit me that we measure success differently, and the fact that human beings are insatiable.

In the course of our discussion which lasted for a while, I realized that the person for some reasons saw me as highly successful by literally all standards, which shocked me to the bone. For here was I doing all I can to be successful, and here was someone (who for some reasons I see as successful as well), seeing me as already successful(!). Now the question is- am I successful? Well, I’ll say I’ve not scratched the surface, but then am I grateful?- maybe I should be more grateful, especially going from the angle my friend came from which I never saw.

From the long talk we had, I realized that success to an extent could be an illusion we might keep chasing till we die. The more we achieve, the more we want to achieve. Years ago, success to me was having a foreign masters, but then years after having it, it means nothing close to success to me again; but then to someone else at this point in his/her life, it is immense success, just like it was to me years ago.

Am I saying that we should always rest on our laurels and as a result never strive to be/do better? No. What I’m saying is that for every goal we set that seems to consume us, we should be grateful for where we are coming from. Our hunger for more should not make us blind/turn us into ingrates by belittling everything praise worthy achieved so far. In as much as I understand the law of focus and forgetting the things that are behind, we should not be too focused to the point of becoming ungrateful for feats achieved in time past. Instead, we should allow our future goals stem from the gratitude of things achieved so far. Such way, we can keep our fire burning healthily, and even keep at bay emotions such as depression and other negative emotions that tends to show up when pursuing greater things. 

The truth is- this is life and beyond all the levels of success we all appear to have, we all have things we go through that sometimes make our (seeming) success feel like nothing, but in everything and through it all, we must remain grateful, as well as refuse to compare ourselves in unworthy manners with others. We also should bear in mind that success is relative and only our Maker (sometimes through our conscience/inner witness) can truly measure how truly successful we are, and not necessarily accolades and the seeming look of ‘success’ in itself. On the journey to becoming who we desire to be, we should not only be grateful, but also enjoy every moment every step of the way lest we become ‘breathing miseries’.

 

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