Consider the following passage from the bestselling novel about the smartest dog in the world:
Lem grew up with the conviction that any success he achieved was merely a precarious toehold on the cliff of life, that he was always in danger of being blown off that cliff by the winds of adversity.
Does any part of that ring true for you?
Certainly does for me. Success, after all, is a complicated beast. Because for the longest time, we are waiting for it to be delivered to our door like a pizza. Trapped in the ego vortex of what we expect and what we think we deserve, we expect miracles to happen according to our personal timetable.
But then, when lady fortune comes to us with both hands full, we somehow don’t trust her.
This must be some kind of mistake. Better to protect against feeling bad by not feeling too good. Right around the corner is something that is going to be the end of everything. Better to assume that fickle fortune will find another friend soon, and be steel ourselves against that abandonment, we tell ourselves.
The antidote to this endless circle jerk of rumination is appreciation.
Accepting the impermanence of everything, but also feeling gratitude for our own good fortune in the moment.
Tolerating the ebbs and flows of life, but also allowing ourselves to trust the eternal availability of joy.
Honoring the failures as sure signs of growth, but also knowing that good flows to us from many unexpected directions.
Doesn’t that sound smarter than commiserating with paranoid people looking for things to be paranoid about?
Besides, even if fortune does give us a temporary boost, it is still we ourselves who must climb the cliffs of life.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you afraid to enjoy your success because you know it will end?
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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
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