Success??

Is there a reason to separate your creative endeavors into that which you control and that which you do not? Those of us who have discovered our job---our reason for being on the planet, as something requiring that ineffable stream of consciousness leading to creative product often doubt our ability to produce something others will view as worthwhile. If in one glorious moment of fate we do achieve, is all that comes after to be held to account? What of the young basketball player who scores more points in one game than any other? The musical artist that has a number one hit? The salesman that tops the corporate charts for the quarter? Are they washed up at twenty, thirty, forty? How do they proceed? What brings us back to the lions den of creative effort?

Perhaps even more a conundrum---those of us who have yet to be recognized as genius. Those who struggle and toil day in and out to produce whatever is their life's work, but have yet to have that glorious moment(s) of recognition. In the publishing world this would be the great unwashed masses of the unpublished. Even we who have made those first forays into the world of the published have a very long road ahead to gain recognition. Will we be a 'success' or will we merely enjoy the journey?

When it comes down to it, all creativity as viewed by others is subjective. What touches one and changes his life, may leave another cool to indifferent. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the realm of popular culture. Film actors work toward accolade and fame, musicians strive for chart placement and writers long to be numbered among the top New York or Amazon picks. But is this the real definition of success?

What of the young widow who writes the author to say her book about loss, grief and recovery has inspired her to move back into the world? The fan who sends a letter to the film actor who moved her to discovery of a talent within that is beyond her ken? The young college student who took that leap of faith to marry the man she loves in spite of the risk of life altering inheritance of a neurological malady that could devastate their progeny?

What greater success is there than to touch even one life?

If you are amongst the warriors, the everyday heroes that show up and ‘just do it’, you too must realize that the ultimate measure of your success is largely beyond your control. It is the persistent, the prepared, the experienced that access that mysterious link to the power of the universe to shine. Each of us is a conduit to the creative. We just do not know when or where we will plug in and go beyond what we every imagined.

It is in the process of possibility where the energy to continue lies.

If you have not seen this talk-- In the video below, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, says that one of the best things we can do to cope with success is to separate achievement from the work of getting there. I would argue that this is the best way to deal with failure as well, and for the time before the "successful”. It is the journey to savor.