Think about that.
When you succeed, you’re actually failing: the very acknowledgement of triumph is an acknowledgement that by the slipping sands of time, you’ve inadvertently failed in your pursuit of a far greater achievement.
Every time you roar in celebration, it’s actually the whimper of failure. Because to be amazing, you need to constantly reinvent and seek out new opportunities to be better, to succeed at a higher level.
It’s funny to think this way. But success in any walk of life is short-lived – isn’t it?
Think about Neil Armstrong. He single-handedly changed worldview on possibility. At the time people said this was a new dawn for the planet.
So if this was such a big thing, a life-changing experience for humanity at large, how come you can’t even remember the year it happened?
The date to etch into your mind for next week’s pub quiz: July 20, 1969. Which reminds me of this random occurrence when I’d been watching – somewhat dazed – GMTV in the morning yet still managed to pick up some leftfield trivia that helped us win a couple of tenners that night at the Wayfarers pub in Kettering.
Can you remember who scored the England’s last goal in defeating Germany to win our only World Cup back in ’66? Speculatively I’m guessing ‘no’, although there’s always a smart arse in the wings waiting to outwit an author on a mission…
Here’s what I’m driving at: if we’re so preoccupied with success, yet so fearful of failure, why do we not make readily the connection?
It’s the demand of society and the demands on ourselves that make failure the greatest component of success. We crave, yearn, demand more.
But at the same time sitting on laurels has never been the stuff of heroes.
So here’s the question that surmises everything that’s just been said:
Do you aim for a goal, or do you follow a philosophy?
Goals are wafer-thin. Goals are, essentially, milestones down a road to ultimate enlightenment.
The truth is no single human can ever achieve what’s traditionally been perceived as ‘our life’s goal’. Because the goal in this context is never fulfilled.
Success, failure, success, failure. Since we all feel pressured into achieving, achieving, achieving, in a circle of viciousness and frustration, shouldn’t we instead focus on something tangible and deserved: happiness?
I guess I’m preaching from the heart, here. But for so long we are told that failure is a curse, a dereliction of duty, a fundamental weakness of psyche or strength, that we can never really achieve happiness with our sights set on our next great goal.
We must instead focus on being wonderful. Being remarkable in everything we do. Because that, my darling boy, is an infection of good that our bodies will all delight in.
How do you measure success? In failure, or in delight?