Success? - Succeed in practicing. Successively.

Success is simple. You just need to be consistent. Successfully consistent. Then you’ll succeed.

Successive practice uncovers new layers of understanding and knowledge about the subject of study as well as about oneself.

When a hero in one’s hero journey succeeds in reaching new levels of depth of understanding, new hights of vision can’t it be considered as crossing a milestone of success? Every mile. In the successive way.

Unfortunately, I fail to live according to my own definitions. Over and over again I find myself trapped into the cage of substitution of terms.

I want to be successful, but I don’t believe anymore in my abilities. I’ve just described how simple it is to be successful, however I tend to devalue what I do telling myself something like “this occupation has no future for you, you’ll fail”.

By the “trap of substitution of terms” I mean that willing to succeed I think a lot of a potential recognition of my efforts, I think of a possibility to convert my efforts into something tangible. As a result, I deprive myself from success since I stop practicing what I want to be good at, what corresponds with my intrinsic motivation and inner system of values.

I exchange my energy for an external recognition of my efforts.

For example, I want to succeed in my creative self-expression. However, instead of committing time and energy to improve my skills in drawing, writing, photography and video making, I block these impulses by devaluing my feelings, thoughts and observations as well as the way I’d like to present and share them.

According to the external criteria my biggest success of the year is my good grades at the university. However, looking back at this year, I feel that my academic achievements leave me feeling empty, whereas I experience fulfilment and true joy when despite the spikes of devaluation and inner criticism I successfully manage (from time to time) keeping up with creative practice.

As a result success, I’ve got some visible results of my efforts. A few posts in my chaotic blog, a few finished illustrations. It’s a proof for myself that I can succeed in transforming some ideas into a visual representation (drawing / text / video /photography).

This realisation is very important for me since it helps me to fight against the chains of so-called “learnt helplessness” - feeling that no matter what I do I can’t change anything, so it’s no worth trying.

No, it is.

Even if I can’t change what I’d like to change, successive accumulation of successful (accomplished) little projects provides me with so needed hope and energy to keep successfully (without interrupting on prolonged “breaks” at the stations of disappointment) to go on, succeeding in my practice.