Too often, I believe, we humans strive for “perfection.”
That trip is a fool’s errand. There is no “perfect” at the end of the journey. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder for one, and for two: true perfection doesn’t exist.
And you wouldn’t want that anyway.
If you could achieve the perfect (INSERT SOMETHING HERE), where would you go from there? The only way forward is to reverse.
And if you achieved perfection and just wanted to stay there, that would be incredibly boring, cold and NOT meaningful.
Instead, strive for excellence.
The journey toward excellence seems to be filled with a lot more joy, and that needle will constantly be able to be moved more to the right.
When you strive toward excellence, you will achieve much more satisfaction, the journey will never end, and you won’t give up in the pursuit.
“That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
TRUTH!
When we strive to improve ourselves, the AMAZING “side effect” is that we will improve those around us as well.
When you shine your light, you brighten everyone else’s day.
Don’t make the (all to common) mistake of thinking that moving toward your goals, your successes, somehow lessens those around us. That is a HUGE falsehood, and unfortunately, stifles so many people from achieving their goals.
Abundance is not limited.
If you are working toward improvement, and you do so with compassion, love, grit and not by stepping on those around you, you will help, not hinder others. On that note: If you achieve any success by pushing others down so that you may gain ground, that success will most definitely be short lived and shallow. (Most people do not fall into this category. I truly believe most people want to improve their lives, and not hurt others in the process).
So, today, work toward achievement, and take comfort in the FACT, your success only HELPS those around you.
“Because, once we have overcome the defeats-and we always do-we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life.”-Paulo Coelho, Rio de janeiro, Novemebr 2002 (from the forward in The Alchemist)
I love this book!
I have read it a few times already and am re-reading again.
Such a simple, but moving story about following your soul’s purpose, especially when you aren’t even sure exactly what that purpose is. As long as you are doing things in life that light you up a bit, that make you feel antsy inside but also warmth, you are on the right track.
The key is to do something, anything that lights you up a bit inside. Follow the “omens” as Paulo describes them, and you will find happiness, in fact you will CREATE happiness, in your life.
I highly recommend this brief read (multiple times).
It is full of ups and downs (just like life in general).
The key is to realize a “step backwards” isn’t a failure.
It’s necessary.
Diving boards have to dip before you can launch.
You have to fall down in order to get up.
You need to have those bike pedals crack you in the shin every once in a while in order to learn to be a bit more careful with those nasty things.
The point is, you can look at dips any way you want, but the truly successful people realize that the set-backs are actually just ways to change the narrative in order to create a truly successful story.
Don’t let the steps back stop you from dancing to success.
I loved the statement one of her patients made to her “Maybe happiness is sometimes.”
Too often, we humans think in absolutes and extremes.
I am happy or I am sad.
I am “all in” or I am doing nothing.
I am successful or I am a failure.
Life doesn’t work that way.
In fact:
————————————-The spectrum between extremes is long and beautiful—————————–
I believe that when we focus on the extremes, it gives us a reason to gravitate toward one end of that spectrum, and more often than not, it’s the side we want to be on.
The truth is, life is full of ups and downs, big wins, small failures, big failures, tiny victories, extreme jubilation, crippling depression, laughing out loud’s, chuckling very quietly’s, overwhelming fear, extreme confidence… and everything in between.
When we give too much power to the extremes in life, it renders our true existence powerless.
We need to realize that life is a conglomerate. And it is ok to be happy or victorious or depressed or successful SOMETIMES.
We can even substitute “sometimes” for “most times” on many of these things (and if we looked at our lives, we probably would realize we gravitate more toward the positive side than the negative) and that is truly O.K.
In fact, that is why we are alive.
So, today, try not to focus on extremes. Realize that being somewhere along the scale is where we are supposed to be that moment, and that we can tip the scales in the direction we choose.
We don’t have to be successful or happy all the time (in fact, if that is our goal, we are doomed for failure).
Realize, life is a journey and no matter where we are right now, we can choose to get back on the ride and enjoy ALL OF IT.
The true joy in life comes not from the accolades, finish lines or etc.
True joy is found on the journey toward our goals.
We may not realize it at the time, because putting in the work to get to where we want to go, is hard.
However, without the “struggle”, our achievements would be far less meaningful.
The award you win for completing a 10k would be a glorified paperweight if it was easy to achieve.
Even an Olympic medal would be just another shiny object if winning it was easy.
So, no matter how hard the struggle is now, realize that in the end, this time, this toil and this work you are putting in will truly lead to a more fulfilling life.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms- to choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances”- Viktor Frankl, from Man’s Search for Meaning
If you haven’t read the above mentioned book by Viktor Frankl, I highly recommend that you do.
It is a wonderful book. Viktor Frankl was a doctor/psychologist who was also Jewish and because of that second fact, he was placed in a concentration camp by the Nazis. His family was murdered while he was in captivity.
His stance is that a human being’s number one motivation is not to seek pleasure (as Freud and many others postulated), but to seek MEANING.
When we can find meaning in any situation, we will overcome any obstacle.
The good news is almost 100% of the time, if we look hard enough, there is meaning to be found either within the struggle or on the other side of it.
So today, when facing a hurdle, large or small, look for meaning within and you will overcome.
“Speed is about time, but it’s also closely related to endurance and effort. The faster the speed, the thinking goes, the less endurance or effort required. Patience, on the other hand, requires endurance and effort.”- Taken from Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, by Lori Gottlieb
Later, in the same book (about a page later), she quotes the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm: “Modern man thinks he loses something-time- when he does not do things quickly; yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains except kill it.”
Our world is filled with a lot of hurry, hurry, now, now.
We want results/things/growth/success/our haircut/our food/our dose of dopamine (social media, I’m looking at you)/our purchases/our everything as soon as we give even the thoughts our energy.
Patience is not modern human’s virtue.
The conundrum is that the time spent waiting, the time spent in patience, the time spent just BE-ing bears more fruit for the soul than the actual “getting.”
Spend some time in a cam state today. Revel in the patience, it will bring much better dividends than the pressure-filled moments do.
Dissemination of Inspiration 