SUCCESS IS ABOUT OUR WAY OF BEING

Article 7 of the Tribe Conversation

As I began the inquiry into personal success and achievement and how to sustain it long term, I realized many of my perceptions and paradigms were blurred and in conflict with each other. This appears to be especially accurate between the ideas of success and achievement. I believe this blurring is deferring many people from what they desire.

Attainment, obtainment, accomplishment, and achievement are often referred to as success. We tend to categorize individuals or companies as “successful” based on what they have achieved without any consideration of how they achieved it or what is really going on within them.

This can be problematic as it is the goal of almost every human to be so-called “successful”. When applied to achievement, as most of us are doing, success is something you may get to someday, some way, out there somewhere, and it doesn’t really matter how.

I want to propose a clear distinction between the two ideas. Achievement is achievement and it is easy to measure for ourselves and for others. If someone achieves a net worth of $100m, there is no disputing it if they have the receipts to prove it.

However, we have no idea what their family life is like. We don’t really know how they treat people or if people respect them and care for them. We don’t necessarily know if they are lonely or have a healthy sense of belonging with their tribe. We don’t know if they got there legally or through ill-gotten means. In other words, we have no idea if they are “Successful”.

If it is true, and I at least think there is some truth to it, that “the way we do one thing is the way we do everything”, then success must be in every part of our life. This is best applied to our state of being. So I further propose that “the way we are being in one thing is the way we are being in everything”, and that way of being is success.

To continue with the tribe conversation go to Article 8.

Tribe Well,

Brett Labit