I wouldn't translate 'success' as the business you create, the ladder you've climbed in a business or your financial gain.
Success is finding happiness and joy, in whatever you do - finding joy in your work and that will inevitably lead to success in work.
It takes on average 10,000 hours to be an expert at anything - are you willing to give 10,000 hours of your life to something you don't enjoy? To be an expert in that field and continue to stay in that field?
You can be an expert at anything; a joiner, cleaner, lawyer, doctor, therapist, artist. Often we choose careers based on perceived success (what it looks like) or we choose a path that we've been steered towards by others, despite it not being an enjoyable one.
Then we're trapped, into the grind of a 9-5 and spending 80% of our time doing something we hate doing.
We felt trapped, in the businesses we created. When we made the conscious effort to follow our heart and not be driven by financial gain we became so much happier.
We were drowning in our success. Once it lifted, all of a sudden we have so much more motivation, clarity, happiness...which ultimately lead to the most success we've ever really had in the last 10 years.
In school we're taught to have a broad knowledge of a lot of things. You're successful at school if you excel with a good set of grades, sport success, and your social standing depending on what group you're in.
In my personal opinion, would it be more successful for you to excel in isolated subjects that you really enjoy doing?
Become a master of that particular field, a craft, rather than okay at everything?
Shouldn't we be teaching our children happiness, emotional regulation, what success should look like? Instead it sometimes feels like schooling is the start of the rat race, a race to the ever moving finish line to be better than your peers at everything.
When in actual fact, you only ever need to do your best...not better than billy that's sat across from you.
Teachers do their best to set children up for future success - and they do an incredible job. I just think the setup is old, dated and seems to be a 'one size fits all' approach to education.
Unfortunately it seems that most of the human race in the west, is victims of their own success. We've created an environment which isn't conducive to being a human being, which is why stress, depression, suicide is rising.
The leading cause of death between 20-34 years old is suicide which is quite frightening. Mental health services are overwhelmed.
The 'default' nature of a person is 'happy' so its only 'experience' that leads people to becoming unhappy. Why in that case are we still doing the same thing since the industrial revolution and expecting a different result? That would be considered 'insanity'
But yet we also throw other variables into the mix, fast food, technology, inflation rates, tax rises. If society wanted us to be truly happy...we wouldn't be poisoned daily through the food we eat and the expectations set upon us in society.
Yes it's important to have motivation and drive - that leads to creativity and brings humanity to where we are.
But that should be a flower that blossoms from something you love doing. Not survival.
Find your calling, create a plan, do something you love and when you've mended your garden, watch the butterflies come.
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