One Hundred Fifty

05 - Success is the Enemy

Folks, it's been a while and I really think that I have to write something. No matter what the outcome would be. Because that's exactly the theme I've been trying to input. So, let's get ready for the question I have left for you to ponder.

Why success is your enemy?

It has always been the abyss of the same never-ending phrase of the successful people we're following on social media. Our eyes reflect the numbers, the dollars, and the statistics that they have. And often, the middle point they would try to invoke is the question that each one of us may have asked ourselves.

"How can I get successful?"

For writers, it's for their magnum opus to be well-known and get right with the publishers. For the artist, their paints, sketches, and imagination be viewed in a museum. For musicians, concerts, and albums, with their own people singing, dancing, and crying from the message they have delivered. For doctors, it can be the diploma from the years of studying and practicing excellence in healing. For a lot of people, a different definition of success, yet you cannot deny it is something most of us chase.

Lots of creatives and technical
people that aspire to the same story of success, and may have the same motivation and resources, yet, why do some arrive earlier, or easier? Is there a missing component that we have failed to notice? Why can't we just be cats and be successful as we eat? And why in the earth of goats do we try so hard to chase success?

First. The measurement of our success is indeed an illusion we have just made for ourselves. The illusion as if a treasure hunt, that once is found will finish the story with a happy ending. And that's part of the reason why others arrive earlier, and others get late. The measurement of our success is different, and sometimes we choose the wrong measurement, the inches may be so long, so big, for you to handle and the process of the agony of not having the desires in your hand is not aligned for your perspective and endurance. Second, we desire this thing because it validates us to complete the definition of who we are, and how worthy we are.

This leads us to a simple conclusion, we're needy as–

No. We want validation, as fast as possible.

It's not enough that I'm a writer, I should be a 'great writer'. It's not enough that I paint, I must do it with no hands. It's not enough that I do music, it should be worth worshipping for.

Validation is not bad, real. We crave that, and what's wrong with wanting to feel appreciated? However, what if we would love appreciation more than our crafts? What if you would choose applause, more than the acceptance of our craps? Success should be the process, why did it became a destination that you cannot reach without losing the creativity of your mind? As we picture ourselves with the noble prize in our hands, we lose the capability to be real with the papers in front. That one thing you can be naked of is now replaced by a golden robe. Leading us to be perfect, and glamorous, all the time.

Success is an enemy if it shifts your eyes away from the true creativity.

For example, a writer with a delusion of perfection tried to do everything with all his might. Got rejected once, and never again face the blank papers. Afraid, that his craft is not enough.

With this tiny conclusion, it might just be that we love our crafts too much, we're scared to fail, and we want the best. But we must love it harder, to love it better than success.

More than the joy of a book being published, choose the joy of writing the words itself. More than the glimmer of the museum, choose the glimmer of the color that you paint. More than the people admiring the song, how about you sitting, hearing alone, singing along? More than the 1 point of grades, why not the points of the knowledge?

Fall in love with your craft, more than the audience's appreciation. Fall in love with the process, more than the destination.