You are probably wondering what on Earth is wrong with me, right? Of course we like success?
We love it, crave for it, preoccupy our minds with the very idea of being successful.
But is it all just a vague rhetoric we are putting perpetually in front of us, deliberately trying to hide the truth, to escape the reality of it?
What do I mean by this?
Well, in all honesty, I can say for myself, as well as for the majority of people I know, that we are sometimes only wishing success, but partially, halfheartedly. I figured out this quite recently, to be honest, and it just made me question my whole perception on achieving success.
The idea of success, and the reality of it
All of us actually are, in a way, in love with the initial idea of success, the sound of it. And that’s it, it stops right there.
If you tell me now that you want to be a musician, playing soloist concerts around the world, I took that to be your idea, your goal, your passion.
But what if I tell you, that despite your love for the music, and all that “you must work hard” cliché talk, you must practice up to five hours per day, even on days you don’t feel like it, listen and analyze music for hours each and every day, “sharpen your ear” by listening to recordings from world recognized maestros, going to recitals whenever you are presented with the chance, sacrificing Friday nights and weekends in order to practice for improving your technique, improving the clarity of sound, and do all that years ahead, without any guarantee for ever succeeding, etc… It’s all very different now, is it?
Suddenly you don’t really like the idea of being a famous soloist. Getting there is already being a greater obstacle than you anticipated. You are not that prone to the idea now, are you?
You see, it’s like that in anything in life. We don’t want it, we kinda want it.
And that’s the scary truth. Because then we realize how little we want success, how little we are driven towards it, how little we are passionate about something.
The advice on how to recognize true passion for success
A friend of mine recently told me a great business idea of his. I was glad to hear about it at first. “Great” – I thought, “something that will lead to success in the future”. The enthusiasm he was generating mislead me for sure. I was nearly convinced that this thing was going to work.
Then all of the sudden, when I started asking some side questions (given my curious nature), I found that all of his answers were in the lines of: “I’ll worry about it later; I’ll see that detail in the future; there is time for that”.
It soon become clear to me that he didn’t had a clue on what he was going to face. He wasn’t ready even on paper, yet alone prepared to do all the things necessary.
You see, he kinda wanted success. He never even though it through. He was reluctant enough to forget about many key factors, lazy enough to procrastinate and set the start to an unknown date.
That’s not the way to success if you ask me.
The real passion for success is recognized only if we get our hands dirty now, rather than leaving things for ”tomorrow”; if we have the energy to ask all the necessary questions today, and have the guts to start with something, no matter how imperfect it seems at first.
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out…”
– Robert J. Collier (tweet this)
You can also read some of the other famous success quotes on the net.
Waiting for the “right opportunity”, the “right time”, only shows us that we don’t want success – we kinda want it. We are in love with the idea of it, not success itself.
Challenge whatever you are passionate for by seeing if you can start today, by seeing if you can do even a tiny bit to move things in a forward direction.
Not only will it guarantee success, but after some time will pass, and you look back in retrospect, you will see that it was the best decision you ever made.
Success requires sacrifice. Doing it, grants you a shot at success. But not feeling the sacrifice as such means that you are really passionate about success.
Now, tell me, do you really want success?
picture: By Aardewerk