Great success or delusion
Updated: Apr 4, 2018
When you succeed, be skeptical
Success to me is, when you feel like you have succeeded at something.
Some task, job, goal, whatever.
Right in front of your face is a book that outlines all the mistakes you made during that task. The lessons you need to learn, how you need to improve, ways in which you could have done better…
But when you feel like you have succeeded that book is there, right in front of you.
But you have a blindfold on.
And to make matters worse you also have people whispering in both ears saying, “you won, that was great, you did such a good job, you’re amazing, you deserve this, you worked really hard, you gave it your all, you earned this..”
This is how I view success. Always
A toxic illusion that is keeping you from seeing what is right in front of your face.
So if that’s success..
Failure to me is, you completed the task, or maybe you didn’t..
The blindfold is gone.
No one is in your ear telling you how great you are. No one saying good job. Or patting you on the back.
But that book is still there.
The book with all the lessons, all the mistakes, the outline of all the things you could do better are in that book right in front of you.
Except this time someone has the book in their hands and they are slamming it into your face repeatedly.
The pain you feel when you think you failed, is that book hitting you in the face.
It’s the truth hitting you.
All the mistakes you made. Everything you should have done, could have done better.
It’s reality.
It’s the reason “fail-fast” has become a beloved term in businesses and start-ups everywhere.
It’s why people learn so much from failure.
They remove the blindfold, and they take the book, and they read it.
I remind myself of this constantly, anytime there is ever a hint of a sense of success or achievement I look for what I’m missing. I’m extremely skeptical.
I try to rip the blindfold off as fast as I can. And I’m confident enough, I dont need the whispers.
I need the lessons.
I need improvement.
I need the truth.
It’s the exact reason that success starts to feel more like failure, and failure starts to feel like the real success.
I only feel I have truly failed when I’m unable to learn from an experience. When I think I know something.
When I feel I have figured it out.
I always know I’m missing the truth.
Because there is a truth, a lesson, in everything we experience.
Find the lesson.
Learn from it, understand it, take better action because of it.
Then you can experience achievement beyond what you thought possible.
Learn more on this:
Video: Ray Dalio interview
Book: Ray Dalio - Principles
https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021
Video: Ted talk - Larry Smith: Why you will fail