Beware the Ladder of Success
Sometimes, we can get ourselves moving in a different direction extremely fast. We find value and purpose in the work we’re doing, we start achieving goals, and success becomes increasingly accessible.
In Japan, suicide due to work exhaustion even has a name: karoshi. In cultures that hold familial honor, achievement, and success in a career as extremely high priorities, the pressure to compete and win can be too much to bear for both the young and old alike.
Unfortunately, we can set our sights on the wrong things when we get the ball rolling, which also isolates us.
The internet gives us multitudes of influencers who claim they’ve become massively successful and urge others to follow in their footsteps. The goal of success becomes the only priority, driving young men and women en masse to forsake other things in their lives to achieve the loosely defined goal of “success.”
When we become singularly focused on the idea of success, it becomes an all-encompassing purpose with hollow results.
Our Focus Matters
We who have not reached the pinnacles of success believe that the fulfillment, purpose, and enlightenment we desperately crave can only be found over the next hill of success. If only we could gain more money, followers, power, or customers, we could finally taste that rest and relaxation that success supposedly offers.
However, we rarely create objective definitions of success. And most often, if we set and achieve a goal, we instantly create a new goal to define success. The goalposts never stay in one place long enough to provide satisfaction.
Instead of chasing after ill-defined measurements of success, the trick is to find satisfaction in your life's journey and the blessings of creation.
The apostle Paul suggests in Philippians 4:11-13, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. “
When we recognize contentment no matter our environment or situation, we open up our hearts to gratitude. Opening up to gratitude means we can more easily look upon our factors in life and see them with accuracy.
If we only navigate our situation with success as the compass, anything less will produce immense dissatisfaction and frustration. The power of our heart position matters greatly and can define how we see our lives.
How to Navigate Life
A heart filled with gratitude, contentment, love, and purpose will navigate the rigors of life without being drawn in by the siren of success. Such a heart protects us from the rises and falls that naturally come in life. It guards us against the wickedness and evil that can be perpetrated against us day after day.
As we move forward in life with a proper purpose in our hearts, we may find that we end up far from where we started. That's not a bad thing. We never know the level of success we may achieve simply by pursuing our purpose with everything we’ve got. The best part is that success does not need to define us because we’re so focused on fashioning a contented heart.
The ladder of success eats people alive and hollows them out. It destroys their character and consumes their personalities. At the end of their days, they become singularly defined by whether they achieved their supposed “success” or not. You do not need to fall down that well. You can become truly dynamic with depths of character and integrity as you grow and walk through life; without succumbing to the dangers that a singular focus on success brings.
Your focus on contentment and heart position produces more fulfillment and enjoyment than another rung on the ladder ever will.
Don’t climb the ladder of success. Let success become a natural consequence of your passion for becoming the person God intended you to be.
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