Taste of Victory: Appreciation-Part 2

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. -J.R.R Tolkien

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, that's life. Yet being part of a failure-phobic society means that we compromise on quite a few things. The surest way to succeed is to do what is tried and tested, without experimentation, not looking beyond the veils, not questioning the status quo and not trying anything new. However that eventually becomes the surest way to fail.

Today success is measured by two factors predominantly: popularity and the coins. If something fits both of these surely it will garner lot of appreciation. So folks, here is the second article on appreciation, why it might overrated and why taking chances opens new doors for progress.

Knowing something could succeed as a guarantee can be the safest way forward but it is not necessarily the best way or the quickest way or the most lasting way. As a society we are extremely failure-phobic. Rightly perhaps because right from our previous generations , the pains and suffering born out of failure were too harsh and have left their mark. The corollary of that becomes that we become too success-philic. This means that we crave victory and adore achievement more than anything else. You may ask so whats the downside to it?

There's actually a lot of downsides than you may imagine.

1. Lasting success comes from learning to fail less and being more cautious. Succeeding too quickly can happen only if your learning is that fast or you are a natural genius which might not be the case for most. It may make us miss-out the valuable lessons that failure has in store for us.
2. Also this means the reluctance to try anything new. What might be the outcome is no one's guarantee. This also means we lose all chance of finding better ways and stifle creativity.
3. There is the social angle. Failing means becoming a laughing stock and being ridiculed. Success will mean acquiring adoration and appreciation. We fear being criticized and cherish being adored.
4. However both success and failure require a lot of factors dependent on luck. There might be a plethora of causes which may be responsible for one's success many of which may be out of our control, when even if one of it went missing, the outcome could be catastrophic.
5. One more subtle factor at play is fearing competitors success and fearing your own failure. This may seem reasonable when the it is situation critical, but otherwise its just hampering progress.

So hence the saying,"Never let success go to your head, and never let failure go to your heart."

The bad news is anything can happen, the good news is anything can happen, and whatever happens, happens for the best! Good luck!

#success #appreciation #failure #victory #fixedmindset #growthmindset