Since the world is filled with ambitious people, why is the path to success littered with the discarded dreams of so many men and women who never converted potential into achievement? Is it because there isn't enough room for everyone to be king of the mountain? Or because so many people set their sights on climbing the wrong mountain? It's natural to want to be a success, and you may find it appealing to be on the fast track. But the knowledge that you were promoted early and often in your career probably won't be enough to sustain you over the long haul-especially when the express lanes to the top get clogged.
Sure, it would be great if you could just leapfrog over the people in front of you. If you could skip making the investments of time, energy and money into skill-and credential-building and go straight to the rewards. As Jack Kerouac once said, though, "Walking on water wasn't built in a day." What's more, the learning process itself can be very rewarding.
Theater maven Harold Clurman, whose life reads like a cultural Who's who, calls the American fixation on fast results "dementia Americana." In The Collected Works of Clurman (1994, Philadelphia, PA: Applause), Clurman warns against the mania for instant success. "Everyone wants everything so fast," he writes. "They should realize, these impatient ones, that often what one gathers on the path to accomplishment is more rewarding than the goal itself."
Indeed, it's wiser to think more in terms of "everyday successes" or little wins rather than to focus on some giant jackpot. Little wins (which eventually add up to big wins) include such satisfactions as receiving a compliment from a happy customer, gaining a new skill, improving on an existing ability, developing finesse in handling your boss, learning to cope better with constructive criticism and negotiating a better contract with a vendor. Such successes are easier to come by, but can make the difference between a good day and a bad one. Having more good days than bad is certainly one valid definition of a successful life.
If you think success involves more than that and you want to fly higher, you'll have to dig a little deeper. When clinical psychologist Charles Garfield first researched super-achievers in business, he wanted to know what made them different. In his book Peak Performers (1986, New York: Avon Books), Garfield reveals the secret that enables these executives to achieve consistently impressive and satisfying results without burning out. Says Garfield: "The bottom line for peak performers is that they went and pursued their dreams."
If you're a pragmatist, this theory may sound absurdly idealistic. Yet it's true that ideals are powerful motivators. As Hans Selye, a prominent researcher on stress in human life, says, "'Realistic people' with 'practical aims' are rarely as realistic or practical in the long run as the dreamers who pursue their dreams."
Why? Because dreamers who are committed to making their visions come true often keep a close eye on anything and anyone that might interfere with their ability to bring the dream to life. Their intense ambition can make them incredibly pragmatic when it comes to achieving their goals.
At the heart of every peak performer, Garfield found a desire to excel at something the person truly cared about. In these achievers, economic self-interest combined with other, more spiritual, values involving creativity and service. These values became leverage points to excel.
Having such a spiritual tie-in enables you to meet some of your deeper needs. Without it, you become highly susceptible to burnout, no matter how talented and ambitious you are.
Burnout is a sign that something has gone amiss in your work life. For a highly successful 32-year-old real-estate agent in Chicago, burnout was more a crisis of the spirit than body (despite her very long work hours). Having labored so hard to get what she wanted, she discovered that she actually wanted something else.
At first, she couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. Activities she had once enjoyed, such as following up leads, showing houses and closing deals, now felt tedious and boring. Her beeper-which she had once prized as a personal symbol of indispensability-became a nuisance at best. More often, it seemed like an electronic jail holding her captive.
Pretty soon she found herself saying that she no longer cared if she sold "one more stupid house." She preferred a long weekend with her husband. She had the Sunday blahs and the Monday blues, and could barely drag herself out of bed in the morning.
Maybe she needed a vacation. Her life was out of balance. She reasoned that no one can work seven days a week under that kind of pressure without burning out.
A week in the Bahamas was helpful. But the Sunday they returned, she had the Sunday blahs and Monday blues all over again. Financial success notwithstanding, she longed for a different kind of work experience. She wanted a job that would be less about making money and more about social service. But poverty didn't appeal to her, either. Financial compromise, not sacrifice, became her war cry. Armed with a better understanding of her own needs, she found her answer in corporate social work (aka, employee assistance counseling), where she could use her business skills in a more helping profession.
What's In A Mission?
If the notion of "mission" at first sounds too religious or impractical, think again. For your work to be meaningful, you must have a vocational mission that reflects and expresses your spirituality.
Like the urge of plants toward sun and water, human beings have an overarching need for growth that's expressed through a variety of spiritual urges.
In Passion for Life (1991, New York: Dutton Books), authors Muriel and John James outline a simple, yet elegant, framework that should help you determine whether spiritual components are missing from your work. Formulate your mission accordingly:
The urge to live involves basic survival needs, and more. It's expressed through your desire to be as healthy as possible. The urge to be free-physically, emotionally and intellectually-is another fundamental force within the human spirit. But it takes courage to stand up for your freedom and live in accordance with your personal needs and beliefs. The urge to understand is also universal. It makes you search for knowledge that can give you greater control over your environment and your life. When you don't understand the factors that affect your life, you tend to feel helpless and confused. The urge to create activates unique ways of thinking, being and doing through goals that express your originality. If you lack creative outlets, you can become angry, indifferent or unproductive.
The urge to enjoy is as natural as the urge to live. It can push you to search for happiness and pleasure in everyday things. When you bring a playful spirit to your activities, what you do feels less important than how you do it.
The urge to connect creates a genuine bond of caring with others. It's one of the motivations behind a strong desire to serve.
The urge to transcend is defined as the ability to reach up and out-to move beyond the ordinary limitations of human existence. It's a fundamental component of nearly every religious system and many religious impulses.
"Had it ever occurred to you, Dan that this company might have been trying to tell you something when they kept postponing and rescheduling your interview for seventy-four years?"
