The Success Traps: What is SUCCESS?

If there is one truism it’s that every person wants to be more successful. Success, of course, means different things to different people, tho. For one it’s becoming a top CEO and for another it’s having a happy life living on a farm. But both are equally valid. The point is that both people spend their lives working to be more successful at whatever it is that makes up their definition of success.

Another truth, and an unfortunate one, is that most folks view their definition of success as the only one that counts. A salesman defines selling the most and making the most money as success and often can’t understand why someone else isn’t motivated the same way. A highly competitive athlete strives to become world class and can’t understand why someone else is quite content to be an amateur. A dad is happy just to stay home with his kids but his friends can’t figure out why he doesn’t want a career.

I like to think about what I call “The Success Traps”; that is, the attitudes and beliefs that keep people from becoming happy and fulfilled, i.e., successful. And one of them – perhaps the biggest – is when we let other people define success for us. For example, the “athlete” who comes to believe that nothing less than being #1 is acceptable but who’s personal “success makeup” doesn’t match that goal will most likely not achieve it. And if they do achieve it – even worse – will never feel happy. It’s kind of like the saying that money doesn’t buy happiness … unless making money is what makes you happy. Get it?

It seems to me that we all need to spend a lot more time figuring out exactly what it is we truly want for ourselves … and then be willing to work for it even if it doesn’t fit the crowd. There’s nothing either right or wrong with that stay-at-home Dad even if you could never imagine doing that – it’s just a difference in what makes one person happy.

I hope you’ll enjoy these thought on The Success Traps … as well as some of my favorite photography