Wednesday, November 30, 2005

The gulf between "not failing" and succeeding

I'm facing a period of change in my life right now where I have to make some sort of change, no matter what I do.

It's easy to focus on not failing. After all, my wife works in insurance, which is all about risk reduction. But if that's all life is about, that's not much of a life.

But in a recent time of reflection, I realised that "not failing" was becoming top of mind. As I heard myself say "I don't want to fail", I realised just how wrong that was - "success" should be uppermost in my mind.

When you start thinking success, it brings up a whole lot of questions, like:
  • What is success?
  • How do I know if what I want is really what's best for me?
  • Can I do it?
The answers to these questions are usually very unsettling, and are different for everyone.

What is success? It could be as deep and profound as "fulfilling the eternal plan of God (or the Universe) for my life" ... or it might be as simple as "making other people feel good".

Whatever it is, it needs to be completely true for you, bigger than you, and open to change.

As for the second question, "how do I know that what I want is really what's best?" - you don't. And you won't, until you start to move.

The third question, "can I do it?" ... we can only answer that question with our actions, not our words.

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