What does it mean to live a “successful” life?
An almost impossible question, any answer to it must transform the very personal definition of success into a clear & finite aim. It requires you to choose a tick-box or two for you to have any barometer for knowing if you’re close to the life that will one day make you “happy”.
Because a successful life is a happy life? …Right?
Maybe. But, again it depends on how you define happiness. Is it short-term pleasure, long-term achievement or everyday variation? Does it require the accumulation of wealth, the overcoming of challenges or the exploration of the world around us? Perhaps it’s all of the above.
At least that’s what society tells us it is.
Conforming us to believe that success looks like:
University at 18.
Graduate job at 22.
Promotion at 25.
Executive role at 35.
Part-time work at 50.
Retire from work at 65.
Pass away in our sleep at 80.
All while banking over £1m, marrying a wonderful partner, finding work we genuinely enjoy and leaving a lasting impact to be remembered for.
For achievement is sold to us as the thing we must strive for.
Waving it’s golden carrot just one step ahead as the hedonic treadmill of life moves ever faster until our lives slip through our very fingers.
But, it doesn’t have to be like this.
There is another way.
Reframing The Journey
We need to realise that it is not the achievement of goals that will make us happy and successful. Instead it is the growth we experience in pursuit of those goals that will force us to become greater versions of our previous selves.
For the journey we go on is not a means to an end. The steps we take are ends in of themselves, full of experiences, connections, and challenges that deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
When our time comes to depart from existence it doesn’t matter if we die a married millionaire with a family of four or a single digital nomad just scraping by each month.
What matters is how aligned our lives are with our intentions and the depths to which we’ve experienced everything that was important to us. Not the extent to which we’ve achieved society’s predetermined path.
For some these intentions are obvious from an early age. An experience clicks within them, sparking a passion that will drive their dreams, hopes and aspirations, giving them a benchmark from which to measure alignment.
But, for us multipotentialites the story is quite different.
Mastery for Multipotentialites
Our infinite interests draw us across the whole spectrum of existence.
One moment we want to learn everything there is about coding. The next about the metaverse. Then writing online, training for a marathon, playing the violin and back again. While others are pursuing their true calling, we begin to feel like the search for our own will never stop.
Which is why the mastery of our bodies and minds should be the aim. Instead of dedicating our entire lives to one discipline, we should seek to learn everything there is about an interest we have by immersing ourselves within it, realising our potential and then moving onto the next.
With the goal of not becoming the best at every interest we have. But, the only person on this planet with this exact unique combination of valuable skills and experiences.
For it is within these intersections that we’ll find the new ideas, theories and businesses to bring into the world, forever shaping it’s future.
Lovely reframing Charlie. Yup, exactly that, successive passions and explorations.
Great post Charlie! And the AI images are way better than stock photos. Your article fits perfectly with this video about Nietzsche:
https://youtu.be/FDjeRloNgx0