the air

Photo: Mark Jones

Once you succeed at a particular task or goal, do you ever think that you are on top of the world? Do you ever feel that there is nothing that you cannot accomplish? Too often, many people find themselves full of confidence once they accomplish the so-called “difficult” task. What you will not find is people challenging themselves to go further and not accepting their success as the apex of their life. So why do these people stay behind their success but fail to go beyond their own success? That is something worth asking yourself daily.

Afraid of failure

I remember reading a from a motivational book that many people are afraid of success. I never understood what the author meant by that until a few weeks ago. People are not exactly afraid of success; they are, in fact, afraid of “what happens” after success. This is the point where expectations increase and the pressure is on to re-produce the success. And it is at this point where almost everyone concerns themselves with failure. They feel afraid that they will not be able to replicate their success. They allow even the smallest setback as an omen for their upcoming demise. However, very few people look at the challenges and simply claim, my failure will be the success.

Failing is succeeding

We spend so much time telling ourselves how important it is not to fail that we almost always fail to even realize that success is built around failure. In my opinion, humans learn through mistakes. If one way doesn’t work, another way should work. If not, you keep trying another way until it does lead you to where you want to go. The best part is that humans have built this type of logic into robots too. Just take a look at the iRoomba vacuum cleaners. Sure, you can outline a boundary that defines the area. However, the robot “makes a mistake” by bumping into objects and automatically determines a way around the object. It will continue “bumping” until it finds a way out. Humans work the same way. Hence, if you fail, you are one step closer to success because you now know a way that does NOT work.

Success is just a stepping stone

Whenever you succeed, don’t waste your time thinking about how much you had to overcome and how it was such a great journey. The moment you succeed at something, begin planning for the future. Life is continually changing around us and your environment will change as a result. Hence, staying behind your success is a sure way to fail in the future. That’s why you have to start diversifying and looking for new ways to continue to succeed to ensure that your success arrives at a continuous pace.

What’s the difference between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence? They’re both actors and they’re both good at making people laugh. So why does one actor earn far more money than the other? Will Smith diversified himself by being a sitcom actor, an established singer, a serious drama actor, and an action hero. The same cannot be said for Martin Lawrence. Sure they both enjoy success, but by diversifying, Will Smith has ensured that he can enjoy success in different forms. He does not need to make comedy films to earn a reputation (e.g. Independence Day, I Am Legend).

Go beyond and win

To wrap it all up, the point is that you need to go beyond your success and ensure that you always succeed. Since life changes around you, it is logical to assume that you must continually change your ways to ensure that you continue to succeed. So don’t stay behind your success, stay ahead of it. If you disagree, why? How do you do things to ensure that success for you is not a limited resource?

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