Creating Success

We all want to be successful in our lives. The human experience is one of learning to master our internal and external worlds. Such mastery naturally involves a number of failures along the way to success, yet we are always in the process of moving toward our goals. Sometimes we stop to redefine them, or we may have to take a few steps backwards to regroup, but then we continue on, ever closer to that which we perceive as success.

But what is success? Of course we wouldn’t all answer that in the same way. Our initial thought about success tends to be one of career, financial stability, or perhaps a certain measure of wealth. For others it may have to do with achieving a particular goal, feeling pleased about one’s life or work, being happily married, raising a healthy family, achieving recognition, or being satisfied. In the world of education–whether that education is formal or the “school of hard knocks,” success may mean good grades, a degree, or simply overcoming obstacles encountered in life. For some it is simply not failing; for others it is excelling. But perhaps for all of us, the concept of being successful relates to goals which we have, that, when achieved, we expect will lead us to happiness.

Interestingly, very few of us achieve the goals we set for ourselves and then kick back, satisfied. More commonly, either we never reach the goals, or else once we achieve them, we discover they haven’t produced the happiness we were hoping for, and thus we extend or change the goals. Either way, the experience of satisfaction in our success often lies ever on the receding horizon.

So, obviously success is not a matter of simply setting our goals, and, whatever they may be, taking effective steps to fulfill those goals. How often have we done this, only to recognize that such a goal was fine, but we still wanted more. Succeeding is wonderful, but after a while it can simply turn into stagnation. Climbing that mountain was fine, but, oooh, how inviting that peak in the distance looks!

We might find the lack of logic in this, and shut ourselves away in a monastery, or, alternatively, we might recognize that we, as humans, will always strive for a higher goal. It is our nature. And perhaps it is not so much that we are habitually dissatisfied–although this may be true for some–but that there is something deep inside that keeps us seeking out a better way. Maybe it is not so much that we can’t be satisfied with anything, but that we naturally look to making life better. In this case we might see the constant drive to succeed as not so much an indicator of the inability to be happy with what we have created, but a valiant and courageous intention to keep raising our standards and bringing ourselves ever closer to our own perfection.

In the science fiction novel 2150 AD, a young man falls asleep in his college dorm, and finds himself at a time in the distant future, when humanity has evolved to a more enlightened and compassionate level. He is met by a woman who guides him around the community and introduces him to life in this futuristic culture. As they are walking about, they come upon a group cheering enthusiastically. He asks why they are cheering, and she responds that someone has just failed.

Taken aback, the young stares at the group, trying to comprehend. Finally his guide explains that in this culture it is well understood that every success involves numerous attempts that are failures–which they call “success-failures.” If it takes, say twenty failures to succeed, then people applaud all of the attempts, for it is well known that they are the stepping stones to the final success.

And so we learn from all of this that it is the journey itself that is relevant, for it teaches us what we need to know along the way, and at the same time, that once we get “there”–wherever we decide “there” may be–we will probably find another journey to travel.

Some paths are easy; some are fraught with challenges and setbacks. Some destinations are close; others may take a lifetime. It really matters not. It is all the background to the development of something greater within in us.

Which leads us back to our original concern: “How to be successful.” I believe that the only conclusion possible is that we cannot fail. It would seem that education–our growth–becomes the purpose, while the goal itself becomes less important than the process. Whatever goals we establish for ourselves, and whether we meet them or not, is only significant in relation to how we apply ourselves to the task. Whatever successes may come along the way, we will only pause briefly before setting our next task in motion. Why do we do this? Because it develops our character, our strength, and our deepest sense of who we are. In the end, regardless of the outcome, we have more self-respect, kindness, humility, and the sense that we are all, regardless of external appearances, walking the same path. And as such, we all succeed.