A surefire path to feeling successful

What is your definition of success?

Take a moment to think about it. Your work, personal, relationship, hobby success.

How do you evaluate and rate it? What are the indicators and what constitutes progress?

What do you require to feel successful? Feedback? Reward? Recognition? Respect? Promotion? Reputation?

Is it possible to improve in your work but not get any of those things? Are you any less successful? When it comes to our indicators of success, they seem to be things that are given to us, external things.

People argue that success is personal and dependent on how one feels about what one does and this may be true. But more often than not, without some of the various forms of payment and recognition, even the best feelings of successful work seem to fade.

Now, if the indicators of success are the external ones mentioned above and no one mentions the excellent work, no added income, no pat on the back, no shiny new title on the business cards or articles written in the local paper, can someone be successful?

There seems to be a conflict between what is success and how we commonly evaluate and measure success. If all the reports come back as failure and no one even cared, even the best work of a lifetime can suddenly seem meaningless.

On top of this, these indicators of success are also tied to our available resources in life. What we can buy, where we can live, what school our children can attend. Pretty soon, these also become indicators of success.

So what do we do? Do we stay true to our best work or do we look to satisfy the indicator requirements? Do we compromise our best work for positive feedback? How long is it before our satisfying of indicators takes precedence over our personal definition of success?

In time, the indicators change their requirements and to satisfy them, one often must move further and further away from the personal requirements. Soon success becomes the satisfaction of the external indicators. Achievement in what others want.

I think this is why so many people can get promotions, travel the world, drive nice cars, wear fancy clothes, keep winning yet, still feel somewhat empty. Like something is missing. So then they go out to satisfy more indicators. They buy their dream home, get married, have a couple kids and yet, still not enough.

Maybe the bank account is not big enough, the job title not important enough the car not large enough or the power held too low. Perhaps, the brands are not exclusive enough, the jewels not shiny enough, the shoes not fashionable enough. More achievement is obviously necessary. Success becomes a drug and progression the vein and everyone looks on in envy wishing they had a piece of a successful life too.

Is this success?

If I think about this for just a moment, who is the beneficiary? At one point my success depended on how I felt about my work yet now, it depends on a continual ramping up of my consumptive habits and what I need to consume to feel successful, is defined by others. I have no control over it.

Consumption to achieve. Consumption as success.

Who benefits again?

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]