The last few days I was able to cry again and, while starting to play music around half an hour ago or so, I started to feel better again. And it had to do with allowing my negative emotions to be there, to accept that I’m in deep shit and that my life didn’t turn out how it was supposed to be. And that I have no clue how to get out of this shit. As I have been basically alone last week and next week I won’t have any money to even buy food for myself and the people around me.
And yesterday I got kind of annoyed with an e-mail from Scott Dinsmore, the person in charge of Live Your Legend. And it started with his article The 35 Secrets I Wish You Didn’t Know About Me. And don’t get me wrong, I’m quite sure the article is very honest and a very well mentioned intention to help people. But what annoyed me was that it’s all written from the perspective of someone who is already successfull.
And the same basically applies to Think and Grow Rich, the book that inspired me to start this website and the project Inspiration for Success. It is all written from the perspective of successful people and from the perspective that anybody could achieve that type of success.
And I’m starting to doubt that. And again, don’t get me wrong, I’m quite sure that if you’re willing to give, or give up, something like anything, you could indeed achieve anything. But in my case for example I don’t want to give up my family life, being together with my partner and the dogs and I prefer not to give up my house, my home. Which means that my locations, the place from where I want to do things, is kind of limiting.
But the main thing that made me feel doubting a lot of the success stuff I am and have been reading is that it doesn’t take into account things like personality and moods and world economy. And that it presumes everybody can just have the self control that is needed to achieve things.
And yes, all those books, all this stuff is written very carefully. And in the end it just puts the responsibility to you. And the ‘blame’ if you don’t achieve the success you are looking for. But I think it’s too easy to just point to ‘excuses’ and things like that as it all appears too easy.
And what made me start this article is actually the research I found about happiness and success, where research indicates that 30% to 40% depends on genetics. And that 30% to 40% depends on circumstances like world economy or maybe the place where you grew up or live. So only about 40% of your happiness and/or success are within your control. And that’s less than half!
And also, looking at myself. I am a graduate in Mechanical Engineering with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering. And I have worked with KPMG, one of the top consultancy firms in the world. So I’m not just the average Joe (no offense meant). But if I can’t even make decent living, just even buy the food I need, then there is something more going on than just ‘do all the things that is needed to achieve success or happiness’.
So no, I’m starting to believe it’s not all that simple as described in all the books (written by successful people, otherwise it wouldn’t have been published).
To be continued…