“Success is nothing more than a progressive realisation of a worthy ideal.”
- Earl Nightingale
The simple dictionary meaning of the word ‘success’ is an accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. And, in our day to day language too, we associate success with the accomplishment of something – it could be earning money, wealth, fame, power, authority or even knowledge. Success is a measurable term.
Let us take one aspect with which people associate success with. It could be wealth. At what point does the accumulation of wealth become an accomplishment? Is it when we meet our basic needs for daily living? Or, is it when we buy our first car or our first home, or when we have a bunch of people working for us? If once it is accomplished, do we stop proceeding on that path further? At what point do we say that we have accomplished?
We often try to make success a resultant of our efforts. And, the moment we make it a result, we perhaps make success that needs to be (or can be) measured. And, so we start measuring and benchmarking ourselves against the societal norms or some standards that we set. Essentially, it’s a game of comparison. We position ourselves to constantly evaluate. And, without realising, we make success about an approval or a validation from an external entity – that could be society, our boss, teachers or even parents. In this process, while success in its meaning still is the same, in its essence we reduce its meaning.
Let us consider that the desire outcome is educating every single child on this planet. Then, every time a child gets educated, we’re that much closer to our desired outcome. And, that is success.
Consider that success is not an end result but a process driving towards a desired outcome. Let us consider that the desired outcome is educating every single child on this planet. Then, every time a child gets educated, we’re that much closer to our desired outcome. And, that is a success. Success is not about achieving something, but it is about proceeding in the direction of achieving something and with a clear intention. We head in that direction by being fully aware. That ‘something’ to be achieved is for our own purpose, aligned with our set intentions and not confined or defined by (and with) society that we live in.
Success, therefore, as Earl Nightingale defines is a progressive realisation of a worthy ideal.
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