Success is NOT a Goal and May Only Get in Your Way

November 26, 2007

You are a creator. You were born a creator. Your one desire, above all other things is to create something, anything, that pleases you. We all have the need to belong, to survive, to find happiness, but beyond all of those survival urges lies another urge that transcends the logic of the human form. We can explain the need for company. We can explain the need to for food and water. We can even explain the need to feel good. What we can’t explain is the need for self-expression that lies inside all of us. We think of ourselves as practical and logical and in many ways we are, but the need for what we call self-expression doesn’t fit into either of those categories. It is a mysterious desire and yet a desire that makes us happy. We are all creative, whether we think we are or not. We may not paint or write or craft, but we are all creative because it is through this self expression that we are able to find our true happiness.

You Hate Results Because They Get in the Way of Success

You hate results, you just don’t think you do. The truth is that results aren’t what we’re after in life. In fact, we find them fairly boring. Oh sure, they seem all bright and shiny at first but once we finally achieve them, the moment is fleeting and in the end we realize that we had more fun on the journey than the destination. It’s the possibility of success that drives man forward, not the actual success. We don’t really need actual success to make ourselves feel good about life, we only need to know that there is the chance for that success. We need something to work toward, we need some ladder to struggle up. Stagnation isn’t good for us, we whither and die. What’s more, results actually hinder our enjoyment of the success we do find.

Ever met those people who had a goal to loose fifteen pounds but only lost ten and now feel the need to complain about that fact? We all know them and that’s just what I’m talking about. They technically achieved what they set out to achieve, they lost weight, but because they were too focused on their results, they are overlooking their real victory.

Many times you’ll hear that you should have an ending in mind before you begin any creative endeavor and that’s true. People tell you that you should begin with the end in mind so that you will have something toward which you can work. This is sound advice but most people don’t do it correctly. When they start, say, a painting, do they visualize the end result of paint on canvas? Yes, but they don’t stop there, for them that isn’t the end. They visualize all of the ways in which they are going to make hundred of dollars or get ?discovered? based on this one painting. This is where they go wrong. The end result of the painting, was putting paint to canvas. Selling it or being discovered was the beginning of a new and separate journey. By confusing these two, you’ve taken the creative energy out of the painting and placed it solely on whether or not people will like it or whether or not it will sell where it definitely where it doesn’t belong. This hurts your projects and it hurts you.

Beware the Pull of Success

Success, whatever that word may mean for you, is great but it is not a goal. Too many people want to become an actor for reasons that don’t include, ?Because I want to act.? Too many people want to become singers for reasons other than, ?Because I want to sing.? Those should have been the only reasons necessary to make those decisions, but they became muddled and complicated by the idea of money, success, fame and failure. We start taking energy away from the crafts of acting and singing and placing them squarely where they don’t belong.

I know there are many people who will say that we have to know what kind of success we want to achieve if we ever expect to find it and this is true, but success is not a goal. It isn’t that success isn’t a good goal or an admirable goal. It’s that success isn’t a goal at all. Goals must be quantifiable and they must have a set path that can be walked from point A to point B. I look at goals like a race; there’s a starting line, a finish line and a clear path to run in between. Everyone might take a slightly different track, but they all take a clear path.

A Goal Must:

1.Be Quantifiable: You must be able to say to what extent your goal will reach. If it’s a number, you must be able to state that number.
2.Have Clearly Defined Steps: You’ve got to be able to see exactly how you will get to your destination.
3.Must Have a Consistent Path: Your goal cannot follow a process that only works occasionally or for certain people.

Let’s take this example:
If you wanted to lose, say, thirty pounds what would you do? You would probably find a good diet, find a good gym and start using both consistently. This is a good goal to have because you’ll know when you’ve achieved it, you’ll know how close you are to achieving it every step of the way and you can see precisely how you are going to get from one point to another. There is never any inconsistency on your path, either. If you take the diet and exercise road, taking no detours along the way, you must get results. You’ll never run the race only to realize that you crossed the wrong finish line. It works every time without fail, no matter who you are.

Fame, success, or ?striking it rich,? don’t work that way, they are missing a lot of the qualities that make a goal. Sure, we can quantify it by saying how successful we want to be or how much money we want to make, but that’s it. We have a starting line and a finish line, but there’s no clear way of getting from one to the other. It’s as if someone planted an entire forest in the middle of your race track, you could barrel through the trees all you wanted but you might end up miles from the finish line. There is no clearly defined way of getting there from here and certainly no consistent way of doing so. One person may find a path to riches, but the same path never seems to work twice. This inconsistency just won’t fly when it comes to making goals. If it only works once, it’s not a plan, it’s not a goal, it’s a fluke.

The way I remember it is that if it is an end results that someone could accidentally stumble upon, it’s not a goal. Someone could win the lottery and get rich over night, seemingly by accident. If someone ?accidentally? loses thirty pounds, we’ll still know why. It’s because their body burned more calories than it took in. There is no mystery in that. If you could right me a step by step map of how to achieve my goal that would work every time without fail, it’s a goal. If you can’t do that, it’s just not a goal at all.

Success Has Its Place

I don’t want you think that I’m telling you that success isn’t a good, or admirable thing to strive for because I would never say anything of the sort. What I am saying is that turning your focus on something that has no clear path will only serve to get in your way. If the dollar signs come to your eyes before you’ve created your masterpiece, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Artistic energy is not the same as the energy is takes to sell your creations. If you’re an artist who sells his own paintings, there is nothing wrong with wanting to get paid well for your work. The trick is to make sure that you are keeping those two portions of your life separate. When you are creating you are creating, when you are selling you are selling and the ne’er the twain shall meet.

Keep success in it’s place. Keep creation in it’s place. You and success will meet in the middle, so long as you are focusing on creating something that provides value to the world. If you spend most of your day contemplating the millions you are going to make, or trying to get your mind ?financially abundant,? then do yourself a favor and get to work. Use that spark of creation and stop letting your mind be crowded and overrun by thoughts of success, money, and fears of failure. There is a time for all that meditation and attraction and it’s well after you’ve cleaned up the paint and framed that latest masterpiece.

Author’s Note: I don’t usually recommend other sites to my readers because I’m extremely picky when it comes to great content. That said, if I recommend it, you know it’s top-notch stuff. If you’re interested in balancing your creative side with your business side, go take a look at Christine Kane’s blog at www.christinekane.com/blog. I love Christine’s music and her writing. I raved about her on The Alchemist and I’m doing so again. If you’re an artist, or even just like to think of yourself as creative, Christine’s site is for you and I would happily send you to her
–D.R.

Posted in Being Proactive, Creativity, Goal Setting, Law of Attraction, Metaphysics, Money, Motivation, Providing Value, Success