Success + illusions: A strange marriage

Entrance to a parking lot with the interior in darkness - Photo: Still Gravity..
One way to darkness - License our images here. 

This is a complex topic that mixes the internal and the external. A universe of dreams and illusions of happiness and fulfillment combined with weird searches for meaning, purpose, and transcendence in a material world where each of us is one more of the many. Addictive alchemy for the minds entangled in the comparison trap of social life, that "big competition" in our eternal pursuit for external validation. 

How to define success? No easy answer. In most cases, we look for external markers such as money and wealth and fame and status. Often, all of them combined in a big pancake. Simplifying: we tend to define success for our public standing and how others see us. 

What a game of appearances that sometimes dwells in the dark path of deception. What a hangover of the mind after drinking too much Kool-Aid to blur a universal reality that is hard to accept: our ephemeral one-way trip. What a dull plan for a live in denial from beginning to end. 

Can we escape from this trap? Well, if you don't like to "play the game", there is a way out of the social madness without renouncing to society and moving away to a remote cave. Here we go with ideas to explore.  
  • Define your version of success, the one meaningful to you. Forget the rest and become an original. Refuse to be the copy of someone else.
  • Embrace what life throws to you and learn from the setbacks. Analize, adjust, change, and evolve. Live the journey and don't get too fixed with destinations. 
  • Balance your life. Don't trade the joys of the journey in the pursuit of success. Don't get drunk and blind with overdoses of passion. Don't get drown in the pool of unattainable illusions. Be realist with your goals. 
Sucess and illusions are pathways of a complex labyrinth because everybody is different. Each of us is a mini world entitled to navigate his own path through life. And to make things worse, success happens to be a very relative thing. 

Most of what we read about success are generalizations. Beware of influencers' talks because many are after what rests inside of your wallet. Check "The Untold Story of Napoleon Hill, the Greatest Self-Help Scammer of All Time". Lesson: always do your "homework" before believing.  

Work hard to find your own way and be as happy as you can. This will be a better measure of your success in this life. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chekika: Forgotten spot of Everglades National Park

Image
During our last visit to Chekika ( map ), we found closed roads and dilapidated buildings. This was our fourth time here. Little by little, nature is coming back. Wilderness taking over what was always its property.           The closed entrance to the Grossman Hammock -  License our images here .  Everglades National Park closed indefinitely the Chekika Day Use Area in 2013. They claimed budget constraints. One year later, Chekika was on the news when a juvenile Nile crocodile was removed from the area - the animal was captured in a canal north from the Grossman Hammock. Two others were caught in 2009 and 2012 further to the east. You know the script with invasive species: they escaped or someone released them.  The Everglades already have the mighty Pythons running wild. I don’t want to imagine the River of Grass ruled by “man-eaters” crocodiles that can reach up to 17 feet. That would be madness. 
»

Google search and the little blog

Image
Many small websites are going dark like the sands of the desert at nightfall -  License our images here .   Little blogs are dying. They are jailed in a dark and remote dungeon of Google organic search, the non-index dungeon. The mighty gatekeeper, like Saturn , is devouring its children. Betrayed for money, the good old-fashioned blogs are the collateral damage of their "helpful" content update. Long gone is that 2004 when Loren Baker wrote: Google likes Blogs. Blogs do well in Search Results Listings on Google. This is because Blogs contain fresh content and are richly interlinked, despite their relatively small audiences. Some would go so far as to say that Google over-represents Blogs. (Source:  What if Google didn't like blogs? ") That's ancient history. A jump to 2022 shows a different picture. According to Sandy Maguire: The Internet is dominated by a few big websites. Out of social, the amateur opinion is vanished. (Source: " Why Is the Web So Monoto
»

The last hike before the accident

Image
Cheaha Falls: A tiny waterfall in the mountains of Alabama -  License our images here .    After an easy mile of hiking through the Chinnabee trail, we reached the little waterfall.  The water was pretty low for a summer. We expected something bigger. A real waterfall, not a shower. But anyway, it's a cute waterfall with a tranquil pool at its base. We didn't swim, but it's said that many locals do.  Last picture of C before the accident.  The best part was that we were the only ones there. C seated on a big flat rock and grabbed a snack from her blue backpack.  She loves these quiet places. Immediately, she got lost into herself surrounded by the sounds of nature and the smooth hammering of falling water over ancient rocks. Who knows what she was thinking. I didn't.   We left for another day the hike down to Devil's Den Falls and Lake Chinnabee. There was time for them. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We had some days to spend camping in this forest .  How coul
»