Your definition of success may be different from someone else’s. There are as many varieties of the pursuit of happiness as people are pursuing it. However, whatever your success looks like, and however you seek it, here are ten reasons why you should chase success.
- Full Potential: As far as I have been able to discern, no human being has ever reached their full potential. The most successful people you know will tell you they believe they still have much runway ahead of them, that there is still growth available to them. You are pure potential. There are many things one might describe as a “sin,” and allowing your potential to go waste must be one of them. Chasing success will require you to grow beyond whatever you are now and become the person that comes after the person you are now. Even though you are not likely to reach your full potential, you’ll get a lot closer.
- Exercise Your Gifts: You have some talent, some skill, something unique, even if you don’t recognize it as such. Let’s call whatever it is that you have your gift. All people are created equal, which is to say, unequal. The distribution of individual talents, attributes, and interests vary from person to person. Your gift is not the same as my gift. Those who seek success play to their strengths, leveraging their gifts. They shore up their weaknesses by surrounding themselves with other people who gifts in other areas. Your pursuit will require you to exercise your gifts.
- The Process Provides Growth: Too many people want success but fail at the first two points. There is a cottage industry of people who sell them the idea that they can have success without the effort, but true reasons for success always include hard work and dedication. There is no success without struggle. Greater success requires even more considerable effort. As much as I resist cliches like “Trust the process,” there is a truth there that is undeniable. There is no substitute for consistently doing the work and persisting over time. The process provides growth, and growth provides better results—the results that lead to success.
- Increase Your Capabilities and Capacity: The very pursuit of success and the growth it requires will build your capabilities. Your version of success will no doubt require you to gain new competencies. The more capable version of yourself will produce better results than past versions. Your capacity to produce better results will also improve as you pursue what you want. As your capabilities and ability grow, so will your vision of what is possible. So will your perception of what success means.
- Higher Standards: One success leads to another success. The success you create sets a standard for what you expect of yourself. That high standard spills over into other areas of your life. Soon what was once an acceptable performance is no longer satisfactory. By raising the bar on yourself, you ensure that no one has to do that for you. Or worse, set it too low.
- A Life You Design: If you have been here for any time, you have no doubt bumped into the concept I call “The Drift.” The drift is all the things that pull you in a direction that is not of your making. The very goal of deciding what success means to you and chasing after it with all you’ve got will prevent you from drifting; understanding your reasons for success will also cause you to live a life you design.
- Create Abundance: Success comes with all kind of benefits, including abundance. Money is undoubtedly one of the outcomes that come with success, but that isn’t the most interesting area of abundance. You also have a wealth of choices, opportunities, and the ability to provide greater abundance to those deprived of it.
- People Are Counting on You: People are counting on you to succeed. There are people to whom you are responsible, and your obligation to them requires you to find success, as understanding your reasons for success will drive your efforts and commitment.These obligations may be familial. They may be monetary. The most successful people chased success not for themselves, but for the people who were counting on them. If you resist pursuing success because it feels self-oriented, know that chasing success is not solely for personal gain but also for the benefit of those who depend on you. It is other-oriented, and especially as it pertains to money, something that can only be acquired by creating value for others.
- You Are an Example: You are an example for others. No matter where you are on your journey, there are countless others far behind you on the path. Those behind you are looking at you as their model. They look to you to determine what is good and true and beautiful. Your working to produce success will be an example to others, showing them that chasing success is what they should strive to do as well. Should you choose not to, the people behind you will think they should not either.
- Make a Greater Contribution: The framework you might consider here is “be more, do more, have more, and contribute more.” The order here is important. Too many want the “have more” without working on “being more and “doing more.” This final reason is perhaps the most interesting of the collection here. Most people get the most satisfaction from contributing themselves.
If you need reasons, let this list be your guide as to why you should chase success.
