We live in a society where more is more and being the best is better. We have been taught that success equals having more money, more possesions, more of everything and especially more than what the rest has. It is as if we had been programmed to be like those rats in the lab that run tirelessly on their exercise wheels just because that is what you are meant to do. Without going anywhere, without achieving anything meaningful. Just running. Our modern business culture is like a rat race. And, as someone famously said, what’s the point of winning the rat race if in the end you are still a rat?
Along the way someone forgot to teach us that the real success is
not achieving those goals but being happy while pursuing them, loving
what you do, feeling comfortable in your skin and sharing that special
feeling with those who matter the most to you. Be it your spouse,
family, friends, coworkers, team members, neighbours… Of course, we all have bills to pay and we all want to run a succesful business, but working our lives away just to make it to the end of the month or just to outdo the competition does not add any value to our lives.
When was the last time that you opened your eyes in the morning and thought “Gee, I’m so happy that it’s Monday!”? Us creatives may not have a proper beginning or a proper end of the week, but this still applies to us. When was the last time that you got home from work completely exhausted but with a smile on your face and feeling fulfilled? When was the last time that you felt happy with what you do?
Instead of spending our days trying to make more money or trying to be better than the competition, why don’t we try to focus in ourselves? Albert Camus once said “To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.” Let’s stop trying to win this race and let’s start focusing in our personal growth. Let’s try to learn something new as often as we can, let’s try to improve our skills and become better in our craft, let’s try to make deeper connections with the people that we interact with. We might feel today that being successful is about making a lot of money, having a million clients or even becoming famous. But in the end, money comes and goes, clients are here today and maybe not tomorrow and fame is ephemeral and all that we are left with is what we have learned from the experiences that we have lived. Let every experience in your life be worthy of a life worth living.
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