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Life Is an Endless Series of Adjustments
It’s not something you get “right” on your first (or fiftieth) try
A lot has been said about “success” and “failure”. I’m sure you’ve told yourself a story or two. They’re words we throw around too often. Yes, some things have definite conclusions, like a work project, a football match, or the outcome of an election, but other things don’t. For example, you.
Despite this, what I’ve seen myself do time and time again is “pin” events with definite conclusions to me, as if I should wear either the pride or shame — depending on the outcome — for the rest of my life. I’ve become entangled with the conclusions of these fleeting events, even though my life continues long after those events have ended.
This can just as easily happen with success as with failure. I’m sure you’ve known someone who’s experienced great success and then turned a little arrogant and conceited. Did they boastfully wear the badge of their past success, their perceived self-worth entangled with the perceived value of the success?
When we become too entangled with our successes, we easily embarrass ourselves and underperform. We think that the rest should come easy, now that we’ve accomplished this one, great thing. Sadly, that’s not the case. So, we don’t perform as well as we can because…