THE PRESSURE OF SUCCESS – A PERSONAL JOURNEY

We live in a digital age where a virus is sweeping the globe, its apparent every time you turn on the TV and it’s setting people up for serious mental health issues. Social Media is a great tool (we love it) it is not the devil, it is there to be used as YOU wish but the world is moving at an ever increasing pace and most people feel empty, forever hungry and terrified of being left behind.

Youtube is full of young entrepreneurs claming to have made millions in their first few years of ‘Business’ and in reality they are still chasing internet fame. This illusion of internet fame or over night success comes with it a tsunami of pressure to get to that point fast, at a young age and to have overcome some seemingly devastating odds all before your 30yrs old.

The wreckage left behind after this tsunami is a whole generation feeling like failures. A generation feeling like they are not good enough, that they are without and lacking, that they need to be fixed and that they are set adrift for the rest of their lives.

The pressure of success is fundamentally tied up in what ‘Success’ has come to mean. In a world of mixed messages we are becoming more and more confused. One moment we are being told that “Just being a good person is enough” then on the TV or Internet we are being shown “You can be a millionaire by doing these 4 simple steps” and that is a form of emotional abuse.

I urge you to decide for you self what Success means to you! it could be a simple as learning the piano (okay thats rather hard) or it could be learning to say NO when you always say YES. Success is supposed to be personal not universal and certainly not to prove something to the world. Be careful not to put too much pressure on yourself, and I am not talking about Limiting beliefs, I am talking about choosing what Success means to you based on your values, wants and needs.

We all know that 90% of what we see on social media is rubbish, its the highlights of someone’s life and clearly not the full picture. Internet famous or being a Guru in your chosen field will never fill that void in your sole, because it ultimately depends on an outside source (people) to react in a certain way to give you what you need, and in that instant you give your power away.

Fame and accolades are a by product of the work that you do, if your an actor and love acting or a musician and love performing then its part of the journey. But if an XFactor contestant says “This has been my dream all my life” then what they mean is they have dreamt of being a ‘Famous’ person not a singer, because they could sing in their local bar if that was the case.

So to conclude, choose what Success means to you and judge yourself on that alone. Don’t out source your feelings and put them in the hands of others. Fame is an allusion and trust me i’ve seen it first hand. I worked with a lead singer of a very famous pop band in the the 90’s, East17 and he will tell you the truth about fame, the bubble and how the effects can be devastating.

FIND YOUR OWN SUCCESS, IT’S A PERSONAL JOURNEY THAT IS WHY IT’S CALLED PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.