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Viktor Frankl Quote on Success and Looking At It As A Side-Effect Rather Than A Target

    “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?” 

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    Sakyong Mipham Quote on Living Our Days At The Mercy Of Our Moods

      “With an untrained mind, we’ll live most days of our lives at the mercy of our moods.  Waking up in the morning is like gambling: ‘What mind did I end up with today?  Is it the irritated mind, the happy mind, the anxious mind, the angry mind, the compassionate mind, or the loving mind?’  Most of the time we believe that the mind-set we have is who we are and we live our day from it.”

      Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 20)

      Beyond the Quote (29/365)

      Gambling is not a good strategy for long-term success.  Heck, it’s not even a good strategy for short-term success.  It’s not a good strategy for success at all.  The odds are against you and the factor that holds most of the control over your destiny is blind-luck.  What’s better than blind-luck?  Well, just about any other strategy, to be honest.

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      Ryan Holiday Quote on Success Being About Beating Yourself—Not The Other Guy

        “[Success] is not about beating the other guy.  It’s not about having more than the others.  It’s about being what you are, and being as good as possible at it, without succumbing to all the things that draw you away from it.  It’s about going where you set out to go.  About accomplishing the most that you’re capable of in what you choose.  That’s it.  No more and no less.”

        Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

        Beyond the Quote (19/365)

        Be what you are—and be as good as possible at it.  Identifying your unique strengths, aptitudes, and abilities as a person is the most important first step in discovering your success.  Once those characteristics are discovered (or at least a relatively firm idea has been developed), then step two is tripling down on those strengths with as much of your energy and effort as you can afford so that you can accomplish all that you’re capable of accomplishing.

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        Jordan Peterson Quote on Winning—About Letting Growth Taking Precedence Over Victory

          “You have a career and friends and family members and personal projects and artistic endeavors and athletic pursuits.  You might consider judging your success across all the games you play.  Imagine that you are very good at some, middling at others, and terrible at the remainder.  Perhaps that’s how it should be.  You might object: I should be winning at everything!  But winning at everything might only mean that you’re not doing anything new or difficult.  You might be winning but you’re not growing, and growing might be the most important form of winning.  Should victory in the present always take precedence over trajectory across time?”

          Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 88)

          Beyond the Quote (15/365)

          If you’re winning all of the time, every time, at everything, then one of two things has gone wrong: either you’re playing the wrong game(s) or you’re playing the wrong people.  Who cares if you win against a two-year-old in chess all of the time, every time?  There’s no challenge, which means there’s no growth, which means there’s no value.  Either you need a new game to play or you need to find a new person to play the game against.  Even if you were playing chess against one of your peers, and you were crushing them every time, it’s the same issue—no challenge, no growth, no value.

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          Stephen Covey Quote on Keeping Success Balanced Across All Areas Of Life

            “Many people seem to think that success in one area can compensate for failure in other areas. But can it really?… True effectiveness requires balance.”

            Stephen Covey

            Beyond the Quote (13/365)

            The example that comes up immediately is the widely popular cultural pursuit of work success at the expense of just about any other area of life.  But can workplace success compensate for failed friendships?  Failed marriages?  Failed family life?  Failed integrity?  Failed health?  …I would say confidently, that it cannot.  Real success in life requires balance.  And if we are to become effective at living a life of balance we have to be mindful of, take action on, and make constant adjustments to our priorities.

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            James Clear Quote on The Importance Of Systems For Success

              “You do not rise to the level of your goals.  You fall to the level of your systems.”

              James Clear, Atomic Habits

              Beyond the Quote (Day 8)

              Before the start of every competition, it’s safe to assume that every competitor has the same goal—to win.  And yet, not all of them do—only one person wins.  Is it the case that the person who wins has a bigger desire to win than the rest? Possibly, but not indefinitely. It is certainly the case that people with greater desires to win have lost. Size of desire, in and of itself, is not the difference maker in winning and losing. So, what is?

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                “If you set yourself a goal and work toward it, you are using clock time.  You are aware of where you want to go, but you honor and give your fullest attention to the step that you are taking at this moment.  If you then become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfillment, or a more complete sense of self in it, the Now is no longer honored.  It becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value.  Clock time then turns into psychological time.  Your life’s journey is no longer an adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive, to attain, to ‘make it.’  You no longer see or smell the flowers by the wayside either, nor are you aware of the beauty and the miracle of life that unfolds all around you when you are present in the Now.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 58)

                  “Everyone has an ego.  Ego drives the most successful people in life—in the SEAL Teams, in the military, in the business world.  They want to win, to be the best.  That is good.  But when ego clouds our judgment and prevents us from seeing the world as it is, then ego becomes destructive.  When personal agendas become more important than the team and the overarching mission’s success, performance suffers and failure ensues.  Many of the disruptive issues that arise within any team can be attributed directly to a problem with ego.” ~ Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership (Page 100)

                    “Leadership is the most important factor on the battlefield, the single greatest reason behind the success of any team.  By leadership, we do not mean just the senior commanders at the top, but the crucial leaders at every level of the team—the senior enlisted leaders, the fire team leaders in charge of four people, the squad leaders in charge of eight, and the junior petty officers that stepped up, took charge, and led.  They each played an integral role in the success of our team.” ~ Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, Extreme Ownership (Page 11)

                      “The successful among us delay gratification.  The successful among us bargain with the future.  A great idea begins to emerge, taking ever-more-clearly-articulated form, in ever more-clearly-articulated stories: What’s the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful?  The successful sacrifice.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 169)

                        “Life is one long motherf*cking imaginary game that has no scoreboard, no referee, and isn’t over until we’re dead and buried.  And all I’d ever wanted from it was to become successful in my own eyes.  That didn’t mean wealth or celebrity, a garage full of hot cars, or a harem of beautiful women trailing after me.  It meant becoming the hardest motherf*cker who ever lived.  Sure, I stacked up some failures along the way, but in my mind the record proved that I was close.  Only the game wasn’t over, and being hard came with the requirement to drain every drop of ability from my mind, body, and soul before the whistle blew.  I would remain in constant pursuit.  I wouldn’t leave anything on the table.  I wanted to earn my final resting place.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                          “Some criticize my level of passion, but I’m not down with the prevailing mentalities that tend to dominate American society these days; the ones that tell us to go with the flow or invite us to learn how to get more with less effort.  F*ck that shortcut bullsh*t.  The reason I embrace my own obsessions and demand and desire more of myself is because I’ve learned that it’s only when I push beyond pain and suffering, past my perceived limitations, that I’m capable of accomplishing more, physically and mentally—in endurance races but also in life as a whole.  And I believe the same is true for you.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                            “No matter the task at hand, there is always opportunity for self-doubt.  Whenever you decide to follow a dream or set a goal, you are just as likely to come up with all the reasons why the likelihood of success is low.  Blame it on the f*cked-up evolutionary wiring of the human mind.  But you don’t have to let your doubt into the cockpit!  You can tolerate doubt as a backseat driver, but if you put doubt in the pilot’s seat, defeat is guaranteed.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                              “Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross.  It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

                                “I can guarantee that if you manage to start a habit and keep sticking to it, there will be days when you feel like quitting.  When you start a business, there will be days when you don’t feel like showing up.  When you’re at the gym, there will be sets that you don’t feel like finishing.  When it’s time to write, there will be days that you don’t feel like typing.  But stepping up when it’s annoying or painful or draining to do so, that’s what makes the difference between a professional and an amateur.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

                                  “Really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else.  The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits