If there is an infinite field of possibilities that connects all things - as the Quantum physicists say there is - and if we want to find the way to tap into that infinite field, we have to change our definition of success.
A couple of years ago I told an acquaintance that a young friend of mine, who was just launching her adult life, had told me that she didn’t have any desire to be a raging success (implying that she wanted balance in her life). The acquaintance laughed scornfully in my face. What does she want to be, he asked, a failure?
For many of us, and in most cases, success is some imagined goal, a box we mentally create, which we then set about ticking. And then that’s all we think about - getting a tick in that box. No matter how much pain, suffering, disappointment, struggle or strife we have to endure - even if it means submitting to international humiliation on reality tv - we will get that tick!
But this is not the meaning of success. This is just what it seems: ticking a box. Going through life with a ‘tick the box to success’ approach is about as meaningful and fulfilling as the tourist who puts down his beer to get off the bus to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower and thinks he’s been to Paris.
Failure is not the opposite of success. There is no opposite to success, just as there is no opposite to life (for those of you thinking death is the opposite to life, death is the opposite to birth).
Success is not confined to what we do and achieve in this world. It is what we learn about ourselves, our discovery of who we truly are, and why we are here. To have more than an inkling of the real meaning of success, we have to have some inkling of the real meaning of life.
As an expert in television talent competitions - a status earned from hours of honing my craft - I can predict with almost 100% accuracy the contenders who will do not make the final cut. They are the people who feel they were ‘born’ to be successful and famous (and, presumably, the wealth that follows on the heels of both). I cannot remember any exceptions, but just in case my memory fails me, I will say that in almost every case the ‘winners’ were those who **had **to sing (dance, act, etc) for the sheer love of it, those who couldn’t imagine a life without it.
To have any hope of real, lasting success we have to have a deep commitment to, and a pure enjoyment of, the creative process. If we love the journey to ourselves, if we appreciate and understand the value of self-discovery, of expansion, creation, and expression, then everything we learn, do and undertake will be successful.
It may not be viewed by others as such, it may not conform to the conventional notions of worldly success, but in truth, most of our revered arbiters of success, in the grand (quantum) scheme of things, are like the six year olds beaming with pride, wanting the world (especially mummy and daddy) to notice that they just graduated from kindergarten. Without doubt, what they have achieved is wonderful, but in reality, kindergarten is all they know.
It is the love of expansion and creation that brings the fulfilling, rewarding and deeply satisfying sense of joy and achievement. The love of the creative process ensures that no matter what happens on the road to self-discovery and self-expression we will learn more about who and what we are. On this journey, success is guaranteed.
As the football coach tells his team on the highly acclaimed Friday Night Lights television series, success is not a goal, it is a by-product!
