Quotes Tagged "fulfillment"
A few years ago my therapist asked me, âWhat do you want out of life?â I said the first thing that came to my mind: âI want to be successful.â He looked at me, puzzled, and replied, âWhat do you mean?â âYou know what I mean,â I said. âI want to be successful. I want to be wealthy, powerful, and recognized.â In other words, I framed a conventional vision of success, the one drummed into us by popular culture and other social dimensions. My therapist chuckled at my naiÌveteÌ for a moment and then asked, âAlan, why do you believe that wealth, power, and recogni- tion are the definition of success?â He then went on to explain to me that success is defined as âaccomplishing an aim or purpose,â but the definition of that aim or purpose is up to the individual. My mind was officially blown.
Up until that day, I had never really thought about why I defined success that wayâinstead, Iâd been obsessed with how I would attain those things. That focus on the how instead of the why had really tripped me up. It had led me to make some very bad decisions and to experience some very unhappy times. When you follow the influence of mainstream cultureâtelevision, movies, magazines, and moreâto elevate the goals of wealth, power, and recognition above all else, it becomes logical to take selfish or negative actions in order to attain them. After all, that kind of approachâplaying the game, playing for keeps, as they sayâis put forth as the way to achieve success and happiness. Machiavelliâs writings are often referenced to support this point of viewâstatements like âthe ends justify the meansââbut it should be noted that Machiavelli died alone and in exile.