Alchemic Verse

I’ve heard numerous times the popular phrase – successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t/don’t. Like many of these short, powerful statements, I never struggled to understand it conceptually, but also couldn’t articulate that into any practical, applicable action to take in my life. Furthermore, examining many of the folks that like to use phrases like these to explain their success, I found that many if not most have chosen to ignore the humility of acknowledging any of the privilege that allowed them to start their race from several steps ahead of others’ starting lines.

I paraphrased and didn’t quote directly intentionally. The original quote came from a person with quite a bushelful of the aforementioned head-starts to begin the work from. And before the ‘ugh, groan, something-something she’s woke’ shit starts – I don’t mean that this means diminishes the accomplishments of moderately to rather privileged people, or that privilege is something about which to feel some level of guilt or shame. Rather, I hope to highlight that each person, ‘successful’ or otherwise had a starting point unique to them, that lengthens or shortens their racing line to success. Winning the race from pole position is simply not equivalent to someone starting from last place, let alone someone winning who was told they’d never drive, who can barely make ends meet let alone own a vehicle of their own – let alone a racecar.

Get to the point, Hil – right, so – what this means to me, is actually several points:

1. Always have the humility to understand your starting position, while acknowledging both the privilege and the disadvantages of that racing line.
   Consider the former you with radical honesty, from moment to moment, and remember to appreciate how far you have come – even if you’re only just standing back up, even if you’re on the ground but have yet to give up.
   
2. What success looks like should be different for each person – not only is comparison the thief joy, but struggling on an inauthentic path that isn’t aligned with your happiness and purpose to achieve some level of ‘success’ is arguably performative and represents someone else’s victory. The only competitor in your race is your own potential.
   
3. Try to consciously, deliberately refrain from evaluating the people you meet in life against your definition of success – nor any definition but theirs. Better yet, try to avoid ‘evaluating’ people at all; no human being is so un-complex as to warrant being measured, nor does this measurement inform how someone should be treated.

In this line of thinking, I have been searching inwardly for my definition of success, acknowledging the privilege I have to even attempt/consider this exercise, and come to understand my lesson – it might not be anyone else’s, and that’s OK:

There is no finish line, there is no race to be won.
The success is now, in knowing oneself, in making the steps to forever grow and learn, to seek with curiosity and move forward with an open heart, in being present with the magic of the everyday, in seeking to learn and appreciate every moment as being the win. Each day, at most, is a time trial against yesterday’s lap time.

Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t – they find their unique path, and they persevere.