First off, what is success?

According to Google, it’s “success of an aim of purpose”.

Is this something attainable?

Absolutely!

My grandad’s goal every summer is to manage his garden, plant a bunch of vegetables and pick fruit off his trees.

Since he does that every Summer, he’s successful.

But when I talk about success, I’m not talking about a simple definition.

I’m talking about something else entirely.

You see, many people think being successful changes the way they experience life.

They think that as soon as they achieve “success”, everything in their life will magically change.

The colours of the world will become a little brighter.

The music you listen to will be clearer and more melodic.

And your face will radiate with a golden hue that never diminishes.

This is nonsense.

There are plenty of successful people in the world.

I guarantee all of them were disappointed once they achieved “success”.

The ones who weren’t, simply didn’t expect anything in the first place.

Someone like Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t strike me as the type to crave a state of success.

I think he was just very spiteful after a breakup and decided to focus all of his energy into building a cool website.

Facebook became his mission.

For years it was probably the only thing he cared about.

But once Facebook made him a millionaire, do you think he cared?

I highly doubt it.

Zuckerberg wasn’t expecting life to change after he achieved success.

And therefore, he never experienced a dissatisfaction with his life.

This isn’t how most people react though.

The more common story goes a little something like this:

Ambitious kid sets a goal.

He works tirelessly to achieve that goal, slowly killing himself in the process.

As each day goes by, he salivates over the prospect of becoming successful in achieving his goal.

Then one day, after years of toil, he makes it.

He’s finally achieved what he set out to do.

And much to his surprise, he feels empty.

Miserable, almost.

He spent years working towards achieving this thing that he cherished so dearly.

And now that he’s done it, there’s nothing more to do.

Worst of all, nothing has changed.

He still feels the same.

He still looks the same.

The colours of the world aren’t brighter.

Music still sounds identical to how it used to.

And the same old problems in his life are still there, haunting him.

For many, this realisation can often lead to depression.

It’s happened many times.

Michael Phelps experienced it after winning 6 gold medals at the Olympic Games in 2004.

Kurt Cobain was depressed as a high schooler, and continued to be depressed after becoming a rockstar.

This phenomena exists all across humanity.

It’s almost like nature has designed humans to never stop craving.

No matter how much we eat, we have to remain starving.

Otherwise, all hell breaks loose.

All of this stems from an internal issue.

People who are messed up internally, expect external problems to fix them.

This formula has been run over and over again.

At best, it simply provides a temporary relief from the problem.

But eventually, people always find a way to self-destruct and go back to square one.

At this point, it’s been proven not to work as a long-term strategy.

And if something doesn’t work, why persist with it?

That’s ridiculous.

Instead, you should focus on fixing your internal state internally.

Makes sense, right?

Doesn’t matter how much money they throw at you.

Doesn’t matter how many women flock to you, begging to have your babies.

If you feel like a miserable git on the inside, no amount of external rewards are going to help you feel better.

You need to sort yourself out without expecting the world to do it for you.

This is why you’ll never succeed.

Because success in itself is a myth.

As a definition, sure.

People set goals and achieve them all the time.

But success as an experience is pure imagination.

Once you achieve success, nothing fundamentally changes.

The only way things in your life can change, is if you change.

Your self-image is everything.

If you were to win the lottery tomorrow but still believed you were broke, every single penny of that money would disappear in the blink of an eye.

Whereas if someone who was rich, and believed he was rich, won the lottery,

he’d just add more numbers to his networth.

All of it comes down to how we view ourselves.

If our life was awesome before achieving “success”, our life will stay awesome

after the fact.

But if our life was terrible before achieving “success”, it’s still going to be terrible.

Sure you might have some more toys to play around with and can eat at nicer places.

But these don’t solve the root problem.

They only paper over the cracks.

Just look at someone like Elvis.

When Elvis first became rich, it looked like he was having the time of his life.

Nice cars.

Beautiful wife.

Recognised everywhere he went.

And yet, everything wasn’t perfect in paradise.

He became addicted to prescription drugs and died at just 42.

If external success was all that mattered, Elvis would still be alive today, right?

Kurt Cobain too.

It’s clear that the experience of success is an illusion.

The truth is, our experience can never change unless we change.

Don’t get me wrong, I think you should aim to achieve success in your goals.

Just don’t expect them to change you.

The main problem lies in how we expect success to change us.

By getting rid of this expectation, we free ourselves from inevitable disappointment.

In addition, humans are wired for more.

It doesn’t matter how much you achieve, you’ll always want more.

You’ll never be satisifed.

As soon as you complete one mission, it’s onto the next one.

This doesn’t just apply to successful people.

Just look at people who play videogames.

What happens when you beat a game?

Do you keep playing it?

Or do you just get bored and start playing a new one?

If you’ve ever finished a game, you already know the answer.

After you beat a game like Dark Souls, there’s nothing more to do.

Every monster has been slain.

Every boss has been vanquished.

Either you start playing something else, or start all over again.

This is the exact same thing that happens in life.

So if you decide to chase success, be warned.

You’ll be chasing it for the rest of your life.