Let’s define success as:
*tangibly doing a little better at something specific*,
let’s define failure as:
*failing to do better whatsoever at something specific*,
Success is not merely “doing better”. Anything can be defined as better or worse. You have to be specific.
This is the trap of the “conventionally successful”. They think they made it and therefore they are just failures. They made it in the eyes of the world — but they failed themselves. They failed to improve themselves and their real lives. Therefore they are failures. But they don’t know it because the world tells them otherwise.
Success is neither some grand plan you have been building up to your entire life.
If your definition of success never overlaps with reality — then it’s NOT REAL PERIOD, by definition.
For something to be real — it has to be OBSERVABLE in REAL LIFE.
If you never observe yourself succeed, if you never meet your criteria of success — then basically your idea of success is not reality but FANTASY. It’s not possible. It’s the very definition of impossible,
And as that: it can’t serve as any measure.
That which is not real is no measure of anything.
Success is tangibly doing a little better at something specific.
A little better is enough.
Success is real. It’s real by definition. If it wasn’t attainable then no one would know it exists. Therefore it wouldn’t really be real, not in any practical sense.
Therefore success is real. You define it as a small improvement at something specific, something feasible.
Then you do your best to get there.
Then you do your best to get there,
“Doing a little better” means that something has changed,
Therefore what you are doing is CHANGING something,
You may be changing something in the outside world,
You may be changing something within yourself,
What matters is that it’s tangibly changing,
You tangibly making changes results in eventual tangible change for the better,
Which is what we defined as improvement,
If you fail to meet those criteria of “doing little better at something specific” — then you try harder,
Then you change more,
Change is very measurable,
If you were changing “outside” things, this would mean reorganising your outside resources,
Which means reorganising to what you dedicate your time-resources and your material resources and whatever other resource you have,
This is a tangible change you can make,
And if you are changing things on the “inside” — this also is very measurable — you observe every thought and every feeling within you — and you actively change them,
You go about this changing until you “did a little better at something specific”,
At any point you might end up in a different place,
You might end up in a place where you “did a little better at something else”,
This is obviously great,
It’s a different “success”,
It doesn’t substitute the original success you set about,
It must be cherished — without ever being confused for the original calling, the original goal,
Can you abandon the original goal? Can you abandon the “success” you set about? Does it mean you’re a failure?,
Failure is when you still want it — and didn’t get any better, any closer to it.
Success is when you did a little better at something specific,
You don’t have to want to do a little better at something,
You can change your mind about doing a little better at something — and choose to instead do a little better at something else,
Failure is if you actually want to do a little better at something — but fail completely
That, and ONLY that is failure
It’s actually very hard to fail,
It’s easy to fail if the failure is defined vaguely, as vaguely as we define success,
If you define success at doing a little better at something specific — then this is a very precise, actionable goal
Likewise failure is very precise and concrete — it is the complete failure to get any closer to the betterment,
It’s very hard to completely fail at getting closer to something,
You actually have to do absolute nothing,
It’s actually very hard to fail,
If your goal is “doing a lot better at something” — then it will take a lot of work to get there — and getting halfway there will still count as failure — therefore it will be very easy to fail,
But if your goal is “doing a LITTLE better at something” — then making ANY actual change, making ANY ACTUAL CHANGES — already saves you from failure,
Of course — the next step will be to set a new goal,
But you’re already further than most
Now
Failure is real,
AND success is real,
But failure is real,
Most view themselves as failure at something that is actually no failure,
While they became complacent about that which is actually FAILURE of their lives, and renders them FAILED,
We have those arbitrary standards of what success and failure is — and we label ourselves successful and unsuccessful according to those fallacious standards,
The truth is that success is doing a little better at something specific — and you discarded many such successes, because you didn’t meet some arbitrary standard.
The truth is that succeeding at something you don’t actually care about is FAILURE. The only thing that matters is if YOU YOURSELF ARE DOING BETTER — not if someone else thinks you met some criteria of success.
And finally the truth is that failing to do better at things which are ACTUALLY important — failure to do EVEN A LITTLE BETTER — that is being a COMPLETE FAILURE,
This is the true sin,
It’s not the grand projects we failed, grand dreams we didn’t realise,
The true FAILURE are the VERY REAL THINGS which we could have EASILY IMPROVED — but DIDN’T,
The true FAILURE are ALL those things we hate but just accepted, without a fight,
The true FAILURE are all those things we just KNOW are WRONG — but refuse to change,
This is the true failure,
Therefore failure is real,
And success is real,
And until you realise it — in the form I outlined, OR YOUR OWN FORM — you will invariably FAIL
You will actually be a failure,
You will actually wake up 10 and 20 and 50 years from now — and realize that you FAILED,
I saw many men like that
I see nothing but men like that,
complete and utter failures,
It makes me sad,
Don’t be like that
Don’t be like that because you don’t have to,
It’s easy when you have clarity,
And this formula is nothing if not clarity:
“TANGIBLY DO A LITTLE BETTER AT SOMETHING SPECIFIC”
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