In western culture, we like to try to freeze things in time. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the mental constructs of success and failure.

Take Morgan Freeman for example. Do you consider him to be a success or a failure? Likely, you would freeze him in time in your mind as a success for his roles in some of the top rated movies of all-time.

He did not become a “successful” movie star until he was several years past age 40. So, if you were to only look at a snapshot of him back when he was 35, you may have frozen him as failure in your mind.

Look at a professional athlete who made over $100M and won championships. I don’t want to name names or throw anyone under the bus to elaborate on this concept, but approximately three out of every four professional football and basketball players go broke within five years after they retire. If you freeze them on the day they won the title, you may view them as a success. But what about now? Are they still a success? Or are they a failure now?

What I’m trying to get at is that thinking about ourselves in these terms can be harmful to the psyche. Failing does not make you a failure, and succeeding does not make you a success. These things come and go. At any time, success can turn into failure, or failure into success.

After your greatest accomplishment and your worst defeat alike, when you wake up the next day, you still breathe the same air and put on your pants one leg at a time like everyone else. We are constantly growing and evolving. There will be stretches where it feels like we’ve made huge leaps in growth, and other times where we feel we’ve made major setbacks. This process will never end as long as we are alive. In the year 2300, when they pave over the cemetery we’re buried at, long gone and forgotten, will any of the pressures we put on ourselves to be a success rather than a failure really have meant anything?

This knowledge is not meant to deter you from trying to achieve something miraculous. On the contrary, it’s meant to encourage you to stop being concerned with the shit that doesn’t matter, and set yourself free to do the things that you know deep down are most important to you, regardless of whether or not others view it as a success or failure. If you do this, you will be a success in your own mind. And that takes precedence over any of the fickle opinions that come and go externally.

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