Success is individual. Unfortunately, we often measure our success against the (perceived) success of others. The intent of this book is not to define success for anyone. Success is for the reader to define. Frankly, I find the concept of success is a bit nebulous. So, where does one draw the line? Is success a dollar amount in the bank? Is it a specific occupational title? Is it celebrity? Is it professional respect? If it is respect, then, from whom? What, precisely is success? Most importantly, what comes after success?
There is no doubt that we should all set out to accomplish “great things” in our lives. We should dream big. We should be (extra)ordinary. But….
Andrew Carnegie once said: “There is little success where there is little laughter.” Success, however, as it is defined, is worthless if it comes at the cost of happiness. All opportunity comes at a cost. Doing great things requires effort, and effort comes at the expense of other aspects of one’s life. Education, building a successful business, training to become an elite athlete, etc. will have to draw energy away from something. These cost time with family, time spent on personal health/well-being, and so on. Of what value is success in one area of life if it leads to failure in other areas? True success adds value to others and to the other areas of one’s life.
Occasionally, I have days when I wake up feeling a bit tired of being on the successful side of mediocre. I suspect we all have days like this. These are days when we feel like we just haven’t accomplished as much as we are meant to accomplish in our life.
There are several ways to approach this feeling. One would be to get down on oneself and feel unaccomplished. Another would be to say: “Meh. I am doing okay.” and keep chugging along, staying the course. The best approach, however, is to make new efforts in the direction of (extra)ordinary.
I don’t like being on the successful side of mediocre. I trust you don’t either. The successful side of mediocre is just north of average and not far from the unsuccessful side of mediocre. I feel it is true that, overall, I can say I am successful—by the standards of most, quite successful, but to be just this side of mediocre is a statement that “I have worked just hard enough and took advantage of just enough opportunity to stay ahead of the next guy.” I don’t find this is to be acceptable. We all want to make our mark on the world and add significant value to the lives we touch—shouldn’t we, of course?
We should always strive to be better. We need to set goals, and we need to expect increasingly more of ourselves. The challenge, however, is to not beat ourselves up and feel as though we are failures because we are not living lives of wealth and fame. The world doesn’t need more billionaires and celebrities as much as it needs parents, teachers, coaches, and ordinary people who have (extra)ordinary impact on the people around them.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!!