As humans we have only a limited amount of mental, emotional and physical energy before we need to recharge. It seems logical, then, to conclude that energy is an essential element in both failure and success. They both use energy. And it takes as much energy to fail as to succeed. Many people dont quite fathom this simple concept. After all, it seems that failing is like rolling down a hill while succeeding is like climbing up one. Failure appears easier because its root appears to be inertia, which is expressed as apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger, and pride. Yet when you really think about it, all these states are extremely debilitating and result in extreme drops in energy. In addition, these states stimulate very difficult circumstances, and love and support, finances, and health are further drains in energy. It takes a lot of energy to fail. Like an old gas-guzzling car, you get very poor mileage, and performance drops with each mile. Energy is consumed rapidly and inefficiently. Conversely, success is a rise to states of courage, acceptance, and peace. Since success is never in isolation, it always serves the public good as well. Any act of success is an outflow of contribution. It benefits everyone. Once you reach a certain level of success, it actually becomes less energy-consuming, and a certain momentum takes over. In fact, success itself is a highly energy-efficient state, because you feel good, youre surrounded by cooperative people, and your relationships flourish. Your financial well-being and health improves, too. It takes energy, however, to become successfulbecause, like a rocket ship pressed down by the earths gravitational field, you need to exert an excess of force to climb to new heights. Furthering this analogy, once youre in space, you need to burn less fuel and yet can travel with equal or greater velocity. Naturally everybody would rather succeed than fail, but success is envisioned as an almost a mythical concept, attained by only a few, and very often restricted only to certain aspects of life and not as a state of being. How does one succeed in life in general? The answer is both simple and complex. Its simple because you become successful by learning how to be successful. You associate with successful people and learn how they do things. You read books on success. You master the elements of financial literacy, relationship building, and health maintenance. Study and practicethats how you do it. Its complex because there isnt really a curriculum laid out for youand you have to learn how to self-educate yourself about success. It takes energy to learn to be successful, but once you get the hang of it, you can get on a roll and then things just seem to escalate from then on. Success incorporates failingbut rather than perceiving failure as a limit and a stopping point, a success-oriented person sees it as a learning tool, responding to it as feedback. Rather than using failure as a way of dropping to a low mood level and becoming ineffectual, it is used to learn what not to do and how to discontinue what does not work. It takes some experimenting to learn what works and what doesnt. Learning what doesnt work is valuable information because it pushes you further to what does work. The energy it takes to become successful, then, is twofold: the energy it takes to learn new ways of doing things, and the energy it takes to learn to using failure as a stepping stone rather than a sign to just give up. Since it takes as much energy to succeed as to fail, doesnt it make sense to start pointing yourself in the right direction? |
