Motivation logo

Keep Finding Your Next Mountain

Success is not as easy as you'd think.

By Eric BurdonPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
Like

One of the biggest issues with success is that once you get past the euphoria of what you accomplished, you're left with a question:

"So what do I do next?"

This is something that I've experienced recently with my life, as one of the biggest problems I've been dealing with has been solved. It's an overarching problem that took up my entire focus on my life.

It was about money, and my inability to make any or enough to afford goods and services.

And now, it's not that big of an issue.

I'm looking for an apartment at the moment. I can afford picking up restaurant bills with no issues.

I still can't make student loan payments or anything, but it's clear progress from where I was before.

To me, this is a huge success. But at the same time, I want that question to be at the forefront of my mind.

What do I do next?

Why is this so important? Because it goes back to what success is and what I encourage everyone to do.

My advice when in this state is simple: Look for problems.

Find another mountain to climb.

This is key when you look further into success, and how we behave.

Success is what makes us soft and complacent. And a good example of this is a famous football team winning the Super Bowl cup for several years in a row.

Never in the history of football has there been a team to consistently win the Super Bowl cup. Why is that?

Because of success.

When people win, there is a rush and a feel-good sensation. But along with that come hubris and an inflated ego. This causes disruption amongst team members. This breaks down team work and training becomes too relaxed.

We experience the exact same things in our own lives.

We forgo the practices or training that got us to overcome a problem. We stop doing the habits that helped us to achieve our goals and we forget the lessons we learned.

It's this reason that I suggest we look for other problems in our lives. In a sense it's tapping back into ourselves to look for more things that we want in our lives.

How do we do this?

First of all, I advise that you don't need to do this immediately.

Relish in your victory and your success. But don't let it drive you into complacency. Success makes it easy for us to relax and not worry about our problems, as I just said.

But success can be a great motivator under the right circumstances.

Secondly, once you are prepared, take the time to look at yourself.

Sometimes you have to be looking inside to find your problems. After all, if we focus so much on one area in our lives, we tend to neglect other areas. The self-improvement industry is notorious for this, as many people have said they lost touch at times, despite doing something good.

I myself am in a similar boat. I have a more stable income, but I have few friends and not the greatest health.

Looking at the problems in our lives can allow us to shift focus. We start to set new goals to address those issues and we begin to use the lessons we learned previously to work on those.

For example, I've gotten more disciplined in working on my health. I have a mindset coach to help me tap into myself and show deeper appreciation for myself.

And the final thing I'll suggest is to not lose your momentum.

Like I said, success can be a great motivator in the right circumstances. With those previous steps, you can create a direction for yourself. But you can then use that success as a platform for motivation.

You can fine tune your methods that brought you to the success you've achieved.

You can challenge yourself by raising the bar a little higher.

Or you can use your success to look deeper within yourself. What other projects can you work on later on? What are some other passions or interests do you have that are worth exploring some other time?

Take the time to understand yourself and figure out what world you want to build. And whatever you do, keep looking for more mountains to climb to build that world.

success
Like

About the Creator

Eric Burdon

I used to say a lot, now I do a lot. Sharing advice, stories, aspirations, and thoughts along the way. Want to be a better person? Read some of my stories to help you grow and shine brightly!

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.