The fallacy of success
Be careful when you measure success because then you're also measuring failure. I say a better way to approach it is to just do the thing. If you enjoy it, great, keep doing it. If you don't like it or don't benefit from it, then find a different method or approach. Worst-case scenario, do something else. The idea of being so serious, that we need to make, improve, be the best, is totally rubbish and robs us in terms of enjoyment. Being the best is just fulfilling your ego's desires, not your soul's. So what are we to do?
Failure isn't a bad thing; get this straight. Failure is just data, information about something. It's feedback. Sure, you might not like the feedback, but that feedback is only interpreted in a negative light if you so choose. 'I did this thing and it didn't work. I tried a different approach; it didn't work either, but this part did... and so on and so forth. Remixing, adding little wins, and improving upon the last mistake or, better put, instead of a mistake, 'data' and 'information.'
'I didn't fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.' - Thomas A. Edison. Or my interpretation: 'I didn't fail 100 times; I just found 1000 ways in how not to make a light bulb.'
Look, everyone thinks what they are doing is important, that it matters. We tell ourselves this to give purpose and meaning to our lives. This is a good thing. But when that meaning is more important than enjoyment, your family, your health, then I say your idea of importance is not balanced. When we think that everything we do matters, then we are saying that everything we neglect doesn't. When we say, 'just a minute,' we are saying this is more important than you. And depending on who you are saying that to, on reflection... is it really more important than that person in your life?
I say measure your success through enjoyment, through the act. If you're forgetting that you're working, that is a good indication that you're enjoying it. Measure success in terms of time. Would you still be doing this thing, that is so important, even if you won the lotto and didn't need to do it anymore to live? I keep asking myself this question, and I keep coming back to the answer, yes. I would still take photos, and I would still write. I'm not successful in terms of money, income, and assets, but I do have two things in my life that are abundant: one is time, the other is joy and contentment.
Don't measure success. Why? Because it shows you all the things you're not doing right; it shows you that you aren't successful in areas or the ways you want to be. This can be a double-edged sword. I say just do the thing if you enjoy it. And if you have to do the thing to pay the bills, then do it as quickly and painlessly as possible so you can leave and spend your time doing what brings you peace. Whatever that may be. Because when we measure, the majority of the time, we are measuring scarcity. Don't focus on what we don't have; focus on what you do have. Practice gratitude and see the world for what it is: a silly place where people think everything revolves around them. Where we know it revolves around us, right?
The only metric of success is feedback; choose very carefully how you interpret that feedback; your happiness depends on it.
