When I started reading “What’s your excuse for not succeeding as an artist?” by Deborah Henry-Pollaand, the first thing that struck me was the question: what does success mean to you?
I stayed with this question for a long time. What does it mean to me?
She explains beautifully that success for some people is about wealth, fame or a prestigious title in the world. But for others, it is about who they truly are, what motivates them, and what they were born to be.
Why do we act according to other people’s definition of success INSTEAD of ours? Why do we allow the social cultural conditioning to take over and dictate what we desire? (Get Deborah’s book here: https://catchingfireworks.co.uk/my-book)
Success for me is about doing what I love to do and to do it without hesitation - in this moment. Whenever I forget the importance of this moment, and want success to become an established artist, or to be excellent at writing … I am immediately taken out of this moment and live my life in the future. The outcome (future) becomes my focus and I lose the joy in every step I take toward my definition of success (loving what I do now).
Purpose
There is also the more general question of purpose.
This is important as so many of us wonder what our real purpose in life is?
Eckart tolle describes that our journey in life has two purposes: “outer and inner purpose”. Outer purpose is all about future achievement and accomplishment. It is about arriving at our destination. When we focus our attention on the outcome we are living in the future. We miss the journey. Inner purpose is not about where, how and what we do. It is about “ the quality of your consciousness at this moment.” It is timeless. Eckart writes...
“Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now. As you become more deeply aware of this one step, you realize that it already contains within itself all the other steps as well as the destination. This one step then becomes transferred into an expression of perfection, an act of great beauty and quality.” Eckart tolle “the power of now”.
By understanding this simple step we can start to enjoy our outer purpose in life. By aligning to our inner purpose, whatever we do becomes natural and effortless. This way we may or we may not achieve our goal, but we remain fulfilled nonetheless. The outcome purpose is seen as part of our journey, not the destination.
The moment when I do something that I love and makes me to love myself is success to me. What about you?