Success at what cost?

Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter. Francis Chan

I love the way this is put. Failure means at the very least that you went for it. And that you went for it hard and that it mattered. Success, or what appears to be success, as you go along the way in the little things that don't truly matter is the cowards way out. Ouch. That kind of hurts doesn't it? Can you think of something that doesn't matter but people strive to succeed at?
One that comes to mind immediately is the struggle for power/control. One might argue with me that it does matter and I would respond with two things: one, it really doesn't matter in the big picture and two, you have proven to me and others that in your attempts to convince us that power/control does matter you strive to succeed in it. Oddly enough the people who strive to succeed at power/control are usually very afraid of failure and they use the need for power/control to cover up the fear of failure in their lives. I call that a vicious circle. Get off the merry-go-round! In the example of power/control people end up, perhaps, succeeding in a title - a status - a position but they end up failing in the bigger things. They fail to gain respect of peers and others, they fail at genuine relationships, they fail at teamwork, they fail at being a positive participant in this life. I don't know about you but I'd much rather forgo efforts to succeed at power/control and succeed at life. The cost of failure in genuine life is too great a price to pay for the appearance of success (for it isn't true or real success).

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April 5, 2015

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