success – Citizens Of Culture

You’ll Never Realize Your Dreams Unless You Let Them Go

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces devil's advocate, dreams., faust, love, risk, success 0

It might be something as simple as money. Or it might be something more elusive live love or happiness, even fulfillment. Whatever it is, we all have something inside of us that we want, desire, or need. Each of those is something that we thing will change the tides of our fortune and create a more positive experience of our life. Nothing is free in this world, and just as there are two sides to every coin, there is a sacrifice that must be made for what you want.

Literature and pop culture has referenced the notion of making a deal with the devil so often that it has become familiar to us in the form of Goethe’s Faust or as a more contemporary example, the film Devil’s Advocate (Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino 1997). In each the story goes that a man has made some irrevocable deal with Satan himself to achieve great worldly success but in exchange he must sign his soul over to him. This present a very extreme example of a compromise we are faced with everyday; doing things we don’t want to do, to have something that we want.

A lot of people want to be rich, but a lot of people also do not want to work so hard. Assuming that there was a direct correlation to how hard you worked and your wealth it might be easier to put in the effort, but in the world we live in we have to deal with a risk factor that all our work might not actually pay off. For others the dream is to get married or be in loving relationships, but they often find it hard to stay patient or accepting of the people they are in relationship with. We find that so many of these swords are double edged, it is as if the door way to your dreams is at the end of a hallway of nightmares. So the question becomes how bad do you want it.

For those that are absolutely desperate, ambitious or relentless, making a deal with the devil seems like a great proposition. Their focus is much simpler and their goals are much clearer. Yet this is not how we are all wired. When we are faced with the challenge of seeing through a persons faults to e reminded of why we love them. Sometimes it is not our inability that gets in our way, but our desire. Perhaps we can not see the future value in light of the sacrifice.

There is too much in the way of idealism for us to let it hold us back in the real world. It is one thing to always be pushing against the accepted paradigm, it is another thing to let it paralyze you. There is the artist who will leave a painting incomplete because of the inability to find the perfect shade of blue, but we have to ask ourselves if the compromise is worth it to wait. Share nothing, or share something?

If we are unwilling to take a crumby high paying job to get where we want financially we can’t blame anyone for the lack of funds in our bank account. We have the obligation to live in the here and the now, while balancing our perspective on the future.

The secret to success is realizing that it may not end being as perfect as you dreamt it, but tomorrow is yours to shape and you will never realize your dreams if you don’t take a chance at it. Being too attached to the perfect state in which they exist in your imagination is the perfect way to ensure that your dreams remain figments of it.

THE LOGIC OF FAILURE

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces failure, soul algorithm, square peg in a round hole, square peg round hole, success, target 0

If you see someone trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, the first thought may be that this person has absolutely no chance of success. Looking at their actions shows that they are trying to accomplish something that is clearly impossible. If they are able to fit the peg inside the whole it will not be a clean fit. There will possible be gaps in the spaces where there is not a peg. Or the Square peg will be altered to fit inside the hole. Potentially the hole is altered to fit the peg. Any way you do it this piece is is not going to “fit” and there is nothing that can be done about that. But this idea presupposes that the individual is pursuing an action with a desired result in mind. It is entirely possible that the individuals intent may actually be to break the block. In which case their actions will almost certainly lead to success.

If we look at failure and success logically then we may find that there is failure is only as certain as the intent and expectation of a particular result. Just as you can not ask an incorrect question, you can only give an answer that is in correct. An answer is an ideological position one settles to at the end a journey. The journey is the question.

Failure is not so much a state but a description that be measured. Such as the distance between a landed dart and a bullseye. The difference between aiming for a bullseye and anything else in life is so great that in many ways success can only be achieved if the intent is as simple as hitting a red dot.

Finding “success in life” is not only a moving target but an amorphous one as well. It changes state with the weather, timing and other variables that we can neither predict or even always observe.

The litmus for success or failure can be expressed by a, which is the action or behavior committed in pursuit of i, an intended outcome. (a-i=d)The distance (d) between which is the degree of failure or success and the more clearly defined the intent, the more room there is for distance between it and the outcome. Our common notion of success and failure are this: when d=0 we have success, but when d ≠0, we have failure.

But what if we modify the definition of success to d=x, d= 0~1, or d= x,y, or z where success is yet to be determined or where it exists within a range, variety of possible out comes? The logic of failure can be manipulated during the process by the user to suit the greater ambition (GA).

The GA is that which the success or failure is incumbent upon. It may be a system or, process that is dependent upon specific criteria or circumstance, without with the system or process fails. The fragility of system is determined by the other variable in the system.

Our lives, and bodies are a series of systems operating in synchronicity, governed by homeostasis. There is a tolerance within which we remain “healthy” because these systems counter balance each other and mitigate the likelihood of overall failure. Assuming the GA in our lives may be to move towards ultimate fulfillment and with select criteria needed to allow for this fulfillment we can tolerate many “failures” in varying degrees and still fulfill our GA.

Modifying the definition of success decreases the likelihood of failure in any case where there is a higher purpose for the action than simply committing it. Applying this to our lives gives is greater freedom to risk, higher chance of success, and brings us closer to fulfilling out purpose.