Life is difficult. Most of us consume ourselves with accomplishing a goal. Big or small, the point is we are attempting to achieve something. We consider accomplishments as victories. With that said, a win is a win. The level of difficulty doesn’t matter. The assistance or things that fall in our favor during the pursuit doesn’t take away from success. The experience or insight we possess allowing better navigation of a journey is not a knock either. We put ourselves in a position to run into a little good luck/fortune and positive surprises when we are bold enough to enable the possibility of the opposite. No one receives a guarantee of success. When we experience success, we should not immediately look for reasons to discredit the win.
Why do we do it? It may be to attempt to diminish our success before others. It is common to feel pressure to downplay our success. We need to think of everyone who didn’t or will never get a chance to experience it. Why? Others coming up short or not trying at all should not put a damper on our triumphs. What is that doing for us? It is lessening the joy we think we deserve for hard work and boldness to try. It reduces the delight that others may see and be the little push they need to attempt to do the same. It may prevent us from trying something more strenuous than our last goal because the result didn’t seem like it was worth it. We must do everything in our power to be sure to permit ourselves to celebrate all of our victories. It is deeper than one accomplishment.
What is diminishing our success doing for them? “Them” being the people who will feel less than because of our success or will question the validity of it. Will it make them feel better about themselves? If so, for how long? Why are we playing such a role? The self-esteem of others does not fall under our responsibility. Their self-esteem is not something we should want to boost if it takes away from us. What if diminishing our achievement stops one person from attempting to question the validity of our success? What are we going to do about the others? Why don’t we stop achieving goals? That way, we will not have to deal with anyone questioning us. Right, that doesn’t make sense. Neither does altering our objectives, the celebration of attaining them or sharing them with others. With success comes scrutiny. If we choose to enter a situation with a win/loss or pass/fail result, we need to be comfortable living with the fact that there will be both winners and losers, passers and failures. That is just the way it works.
In closing, enjoy your wins. You deserve it. Remember the long journey, the doubt, the fear. Remember the lack of support, the weird looks, the doubters, and almost quitting. You deserve to let out all the celebratory actions you can think of doing. I’ve stated it before, winners focus on winning, and losers focus on winners. Take this behavior as a compliment. Learn to love it. Adopting this will allow you to enjoy a couple of extra wins that will come along with every accomplishment you have. We must be doing something correctly. We are getting attention from people who should be focusing on their success. Yet, they make time for us. This dynamic is the relationship we should have with them. It is better than the other way around. It’s crazy we’ve been doing it backward for so long. I’m glad we have that straightened out now.
Food for thought…you do the dishes!
