Tuesday, November 10, 2015

5 ways in which success dooms you, if you let it

Pic Courtesy: www.mbacrystallball.com

Dealing with success in a healthy manner is not everyone's kettle of fish. And we are not talking about the cliched 'losing your head in the clouds' a la Priyanka Chopra in Fashion. There are sundry other ways in which life changes, and so do you, if you are not consciously trying to do something about it.

1. A side-effect of achieving great success fairly early in life seems to be a constant state of making comparisons with the past, often synonymous with a perpetual dissatisfaction with life. Good is never good enough and 'what else could have been' is the ongoing background music.

2. As a logical extension of the above, one also fails to appreciate what one does have for what it's worth. Gratitude goes for a toss. Stuff that doesn't count as 'success'- meaningful relationships, hobbies that make one happy etc. fails to make it to the 'list'.

3. What does make it to the 'list' is mostly what can get one more success- more work usually. Working hard for one's dreams is great but when it comes at the cost of excluding most other things in life, one is running for the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which ain't always filled with gold or at least the gold one thinks one is running after.

4. Naturally, when one falls down in the middle of the rainbow before reaching the pot of gold, one is likely to get hurt more than one otherwise would be. You see if dreams of success are all one has, it gotta hurt more than anything else can when they are shattered, even temporarily. Failures look like catastrophes and if one is not careful, one may question not the circumstances that led to defeat but oneself and one's abilities.

5. The most dangerous scenario is when past success acts as a barrier to trying out something new/difficult for the fear that one may not succeed so spectacularly as before. No fresh attempts for success translates into no new success. By and by, one is just left a shadow of what one used to be at some point. The result is stagnation and despair, and eventually ennui.


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