“Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”
Viktor Frankl
Beyond the Quote (35/365)
Having an aim in life is important. Aim gives direction and direction gives energy, effort, and resources a focused purpose. Without an aim you would presumably wander around aimlessly which, of course, would waste time, energy, effort, and resources. It’s like if I gave you a bow-and-arrow and told you to shoot the target. The first question you would necessarily ask is, “Where is the target?”
Without a target—without an aim—you wouldn’t know how to focus your energy and effort and would likely end up arbitrarily shooting arrows all over the place with the hope of hitting the target by chance (or not shooting arrows at all). And success by chance isn’t a good strategy (and neither is not trying at all). As soon as I say, “The target is there” and identify a spot for you to aim, everything changes.
So, what does Frankl mean when he says don’t aim at success? Didn’t we need an aim so that we could give ourselves direction and purpose? Yes. But “success” might be the wrong target for us to aim at. Many people define “success” in terms of money, power, and fame. You know the usual ideas: getting the certain number of “0’s” in the bank account, or getting promoted to the top level position at the job, or getting the certified checkmark on Twitter or Instagram.
The problem, of course, with having that aim is that it will focus your energy, effort, and resources into tasks and actions that have more to do with the attainment of those things and less to do with the actual success found within the tasks and actions themselves. And it’s the actions that you take every single moment of every single day that end up becoming the building blocks that make up your life.
A life filled with quality moments will naturally lead to a quality life—a life filled with misguided moments will lead to a misguided life. If there’s a big disconnect between your daily tasks and actions and your feelings of purpose, happiness, and fulfillment, then you know there’s a problem.
So what should the aim be instead? Frankl offers two ideas: full dedication to a cause greater than oneself or surrender to a person other than oneself. By aiming at a cause that is greater than yourself—one that aligns with your strengths, aptitudes, and story—you can turn all of your daily actions into successes because they already align with your greater purpose.
This might be a company or organization that is dedicated to making the world a better place whose mission you decide to join. This also could be an entrepreneurial venture that you start in order to give back in a way that’s bigger than yourself and goes beyond digits in the bank account, powerful positions, or checkmarks. Heck, it might even be teaching kids how to speak another language, or solve math equations, or stand up for themselves in bullying situations—your purpose is for you to discover.
In Frankl’s second example, surrendering to a person other than oneself, to me, is the idea of love. The opposite of “surrendering to” is “to resist” or “withstand from” and by surrendering yourself to another person, you open yourself up to love. You lower your walls, let down your guard, eliminate hindrances, and present your most vulnerable, real self. When you truly surrender to love, love begins to overflow from your being. And when love overflows from your being, how could you not find happiness, joy, and fulfillment in every action you take?
When you make your life less about the attainment of things for yourself and more about living for causes and people beyond yourself, you’ll find that your ideas of success in life take on a whole new meaning. And when ideas change, targets change. And when you get your sights set on a new target—a better target—wind that bow up, baby, and fire away with all your might.
Read Next: How To Find Your Path — 4 Questions You Should Obsess Over
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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