Value your flaws

Although each experience may take a certain toll, each moment is also another opportunity to become better acquainted with your flaws.  Do you fidget in your chair just thinking about it? Or, are you anxious about the opportunity to learn to do the best you can with all that you are?  Some people struggle to identify personal flaws and other people can't detach themselves from them.

Its possible you sense one of your flaws could be chronic restlessness.  You know, the kind that makes it difficult to appreciate where you are when you're there because your mind is already focused on where you're heading.  What about those blessing staring right at you in the face?  This flaw may be characteristic of many people in modern places.  Perhaps part of you seeks to make up for a relative's mistakes or, to live up to someone else's expectations? What did they teach you about flaws?

At some point, its within your reach to attain self-acceptance. This entails not only getting-to-know your traits, strengths and weaknesses, but also coming to recognize your limits and ultimately, your mortality.  The idea of valuing your flaws doesn't suggest you should ignore or disregad them.  Yet, it doesn't invite you to dwell on them incessantly or self-criticize either.  What does it entail to you now?

The whole notion of valuing your flaws is like an invitation to get-to-know pitfalls so you don't fall into them or, at least don't fall into the same ones repeatedly.  Why would it be desirable not to become too hungry to please? Too complacent to notice details? Too fearful to take chances that would lead to meaningful experiences?  Each perceived flaw is an opportunity to learn and share wisdom.  What have you done and why? Keeping a journal will help track 'the good, bad and the ugly'.   

Joy is found in hurdles

Okay, so you have a job in mind or a career goal that motivates you.  That's great! Now, what are you doing about getting closer to that mark? What kinds of lessons have you learned that you would like to pass onto others going through their own professional transitions?

1) Prioritize preparation.  What do you know about this job you aim for? Have you taken time to read about it?  Would you be willing to contact people who have lived in the shoes you would like to wear?  If you don't feel you already know as much as you need, seek out people you trust.  If you feel you know enough, seek out people who would question your confidence to test you.

2) Promote perseverence.  Your heart and soul will let you know where you belong.  How do you react to discouragement? What would you respond to critics or naysayers? As you're gaining insight into the reasons for your inner drive, you will find you effectively encourage yourself.  Speculate about how you think and what kind of impact this can have on getting over hurdles. 

3) Reframe alternatives.  Just because you don't land your dream job right away, doesn't mean your alternative choices won't help you get there.  How could you get involved in the specific organization or company of interest to get your feet in the door?  What are the benefits of learning the ropes on the inside, even as an intern or volunteer for a special event?  Never underestimate the power of biding your time.  Hurdles promote resourcefulness and ingenuity.

4) Seek complementarity.  If ever you have input into who will be working with you, request people who complement your weaknesses.  Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is a real asset.  Self-growth comes from improving youself, remaining humble and willing to learn.

5) Ask hard questions.  If you're really poised for action, you won't be phased by sacrifices required to work toward the job or career you want.  Perhaps its a promotion you have in mind? Long hours of work shouldn't seem like too much in light of the foreseeable reward.  How far are you willing to push your limits?  Schedules don't always pan out as anticipated. Could you handle the responsibility you set yourself up for? Will you create your own kind of work priorities?  As you answer such questions, you'll more likely maximize opportunities and live as you want. 

Give it all up

Whenever you feel you struggle with relationships, you may forget struggle begins in your mind.  If you focus on what other people don't have or experience, and you reflect back on what you have not yet had or experienced, this focuses your mind on a void.  Would you believe you deserve what you're about to receive from life and the people you invite into your life?

Consider what would happen if you chose to give up the negative feelings and perceptions of people.  How might this affect your relationships?  If you have discovered you have dishonest friends, will they succeed in destroying your confidence in yourself and what is yet to be? If people you know have behaved treacherously toward you, this doesn't mean you need follow.

Perhaps it would be wise to detach yourself from results of relationship-building efforts.  Other ways exist to feel connected.  Resist from criticizing yourself for what you might've done but didn't. No person always does the wrong thing. No person is unable to change.  No person should tell himself he'll get everything he deserves or wish an enemy should get his come- uppance.  What is acceptable changes based on what you learn.  Karma will recify what you give up. Redefine your real needs.

Irrational success

Whenever you hear about "the next big thing," the creator and whomever plans to market it may have very different ideas about success and failure. Why does one person have to be right? Step back a moment.  Realize ideas of success are subjective, and based on more than one reference point.  What you think may differ. You may not care about the up-and-coming thing at all either.

For example, Microsoft spent millions to develop 'Internet Explorer' and then gave it away. If you thought Microsoft lost big money on this venture, you may assume it was a failure.  Yet, if you consider what the company learned in the process of development, the resulting increase of general Internet users, and prospective Microsoft clients, you would likely see the situation very differently. Maybe true success involves more than mere financial gain? What about intangibles?

Consider books like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time  and classic tales like Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace have been much-discussed best-sellers, yet how many people do you know who have read them? Is success measured by the notoriety of an author or theme more than by what is read? Does the nature and endurance of related socio-cultural debate count for something?

If you think back, inventions by people flop in the marketplace yet, are picked up and adapted by others who reshape or remodel items and experience success. Consider Xerox invented the mouse, Apple popularized it, and Microsoft ran away with that show.  Karl Benz invented the practical automobile, but Henry Ford got organized to produce assembly line cars. The rest, as they say, is history.

And what about a company like Napster that was so successful overnight that it was banned and the backer company went under?  At the same time, look at how the global music industry and accessibility to recordings are changing as the result. If this kind of stunt seems to undermine the status quo, and forces a system to adapt to changing markets and customer needs, could business failure also be perceived as a sacrifice for the greater good?

The above examples reveal how notions of success and failure aren't as clear as you may think.  Inventions don't all undergo a standard assessment before universal acceptance or rejection.  What is best for whom and why doesn't always explain the market reaction.  People won't necessarily use an invention just because it exists, but they may choose to use it for what it stands for or, for the potential it represents concerning other matters. We benefit from intuiting a wider context. What you think is irrational may make perfect sense to others and vice versa.  

Ripple in a calm brook

Some people believe the most rewarding endeavours are those than enrich the lives of others.  Even if you never meet the people whose lives you change, it may make you feel successful to know you made a positive difference in other lives. What if you could identify those pursuits that provide you with large, personal fulfillment while you also offer something for the greater good? Connectedness to people shapes us throughout life.  You may underestimate your impact.

Consider your career, relationships, friends, even how you acknowledge stangers reveals how you value emotional investments.  Ask yourself how these gestures are returned or not.  Would this be the only way you would measure success, that you received back exactly what you gave out?  It may also be an experience to value other people by recognizing how they experience your compassion and goodwill. What do they get from your generosity? Is it a ripple in a calm brook?

Success is a sensation that can transform a sense of failure into satisfaction and abundance for people you help with time, financial assistance or other immeasurable resources.  Any superficial attempts to make acceptable choices would never compete with your inner passions.  Your heart and spirit are more than will power. As you share that, you can assist otehrs to redefine their potial and their own view of success. Empowering others is a meaningful form of success.