How to Be Successful
My daily reality:
change comes fast, hard and with certainty.
This means I am always; continually; and without relief, uncertain.
In today’s world I am left alone to create myself - over and over again. It is both my freedom and a prison.
In my quest to my today self and in the flow to my next, I am always searching for guideposts, examples, case studies, the best practices from those who seem to be “successful” (at this moment). I do this even though I know nothing that is so fluid holds its shape. But I must get “there” somehow.
Those who have achieved success in their moment are more than willing to share; there is no lack of advice for me in books and blogs and articles and videos and tv shows and stores and communities and tweets. The example is, after all, who they are.
how to do the same, be like them, change for the better. to do otherwise I am doomed to be like ”all the other losers.”
The formula is rather simple, I see: be remarkable, be creative, follow your heart, leverage connections, be authentic, find opportunity; do the steps, start that, stop this, begin again.
It is exhilarating. It holds promise. It is inspiring. It is unending newness. Each or all might be the answer.
So, how?
The truth is, they don’t know how they “did it.” They identify a path they think they took, in hindsight, within their particular circumstance and in the shifting landscape they were flowing through and with the tools their environment afforded them.
When I ask “how did you do it?” I am not asking for more examples. There are too many “examples” – all of them contributing to me feeling inadequate. Incapable. Overwhelmed. Alone.
The world demands that I “make myself,” so by definition, I cannot do what you do. I am, after all, “the individual” and to do what you do means I am not.
When I ask “how” I am asking for a process, a capability; not another example or steps or for an inspiring admonition.
But we don’t teach people caught within constant change the how. We offer stories.
Perhaps because the story is the only thing that makes you you (at least the you of today).
In a world without structure, all I have to hold onto is a process; and the capabilities to invest in it.
Photo credit: Elizaveta Porodina
