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Climbing the Ladder of Success
We are all on our way somewhere. Clambering over others in our eagerness, or reaching up to the next rung before we’ve got a firm foothold. Not content to just accept what we’ve already achieved and to pause and admire the view, but thinking of the next task or issue that demands our attention – moving on in a methodical fashion to the next thing on our list.
We like to have it all organised – planned out, the requirements itemised, ready and waiting so we can allocate our time and energy, and then move on. Whether work, a household chore or a holiday, it gets factored in to our schedule. We anticipate and prepare then participate and tidy up the loose ends, and move on.
Some tasks take longer than others but we persevere – we take the steps necessary to see them to fruition, or at least a certain stage, and then we are free to put our attention elsewhere, crossing yet another task off our ever-growing list. No sooner have we completed renovations or refreshed decorations than we are thinking of more improvements to our lives. New things we would like to acquire. Upgrading to the next level, because the nature of our society demands it.
We can’t become complacent or rest on our laurels for too long, because things need replacing. We are forced into maintenance. No matter what we choose to create to feel fulfilled we cannot escape the need to maintain it – to give it our attention and energy and time, in order to retain the standard that we require.
Whether it’s a car or a coat of paint, or new software, we are constantly reminded of our duty of care. Once we used to make clothes, darn socks and sew buttons, chop wood and draw water – all simple tasks designed to ensure our needs for the ‘basics of survival’ were met. We baked loaves and picked what we needed from the garden, from Nature, straight to our table. It’s not that long ago that we couldn’t imagine a world with portable phones and wireless communications.
Technology has taken us into a new realm, the world of virtual reality. Seamless electronic messaging in the blink of an eye – crossing the world; reducing it to the size of our own back yard where we might call over the fence to a neighbour. Hello in many languages, translated if we wish, thanks to Babel Fish. Across the divide – the demarcation lines of countries no barrier as we travel through the airways, through space, via the unseen, straight to the homes and offices of the world. Back rooms and living rooms, cafés and hotels, wherever there’s a laptop there’s a person searching for something.
Computer skills now life skills, our job skills – an integral part of our functioning if we want to get on or get ahead in this world, where we are forced to adapt to constant change – updating our skills and our operating platforms and peripherals as we dispose with outmoded boxes that worked perfectly well at the time – the latest and the greatest – but have now expired. Not an option but a necessity – we have no choice. Adopt and adapt or drop out of the race, sit on the sidelines – fail to keep pace.
A prerequisite for survival it would seem, hand in hand with employment and living our dream. Life has become complicated. It is no longer a matter of clearing our letterbox, there’s an inbox to think of. And while we might have just walked across the office to say hello in person, we’re now blocked by a screen and glued to a desk – spending increasingly greater hours online, because this is how business is done. Whether it is our personal business or social plans, it is a way we can reach others, a way we can be who we need to be – increasingly free. It has burst free from the controls of the media and allowed everyone to have their say – there’s nothing that can’t be expressed in its own way. We have censorship and controls, but beyond that, anything goes.
It’s the first time in history that we’ve had such freedom to disperse information in order to share – finding like-minded people who have the same cares. We know we’re not alone because we build communities – we draw together the fragments or the pieces that match and create a picture, weaving together the threads – pulling together all the isolated ideas and expressions into a cohesive bundle that confirms our vision. Searching, seeking, looking for answers; they start to appear. Sewing themselves together, creating a garment we can then try on for size. A compilation – shared thoughts triggering our own and allowing us to formulate something new, something beyond what we had imagined all alone – sparking or igniting our imagination.
The picture building all the time as we continue to add to it – discovering new facts and figures, and hypotheses, and people who share the same sentiments yet hold a different part of the vision because they represent a different perspective. Our understanding grows, and our world explodes. No longer can we be contained by what we thought was preordained. For free-thinking gives rise to discovery, and through exploration the opening occurs that lifts us beyond what was, or what is, to what is now.
A constant cycle of renewal and growth if we allow it to carry us. Yet where are we headed, and what’s the hurry? In the excitement of the journey we can lose ourselves or easily succumb to the belief that our lives are improved or enriched as our focus is drawn more completely to technology as the provider of the keys to the future, the enabler, the form of media most likely to succeed. A useful tool to empower us, or holding the power to enslave us?
Artificial intelligence using our intelligent faculties, stretching us, getting us to use our minds to make associations and to collect data. On one hand, a huge directory – directing and guiding us as we accumulate information in order to take action and on the other, keeping us from more intimate or direct forms of communication. A public arena, a new world stage, an open forum, a title page. Facebook profiles segment us and promote us – we are able to be catalogued. Listed by qualities, attributes, achievements and goals, and measured by the number of friends we can acquire to prove our popularity. Success because we are accepted.
We feel loved, we are noticed – we are not alone. The most basic human desires met – by those who wouldn’t notice us on a crowded street, now we have a desire to meet. Common interests and finding a match, a priority, yet is there a catch? In our desire to be seen while we’re climbing to the top, do we know where we’re all headed – does the ladder actually stop?
Exactly what would we like to define as the top? If we know that at the end of our life death awaits, are we hastening to reach this place? If we’re always running and looking to the future, we know what it ultimately brings. Isn’t that what we’re most afraid of? Doesn’t fear of death drive us to cram things into our life so we won’t miss out? We’ve got so much we want to achieve after all, and the only way we can measure it is to compare what we’ve got with others.
We can measure this success by material means – the at-a-glance version of a study, it’s not hard to set the criteria. Where we live, for starters – our addresses saying more about us than our clothes, or our car. Our acquaintances. Our access: the invitations we acquire and the doors that are opened to us. The investments that have allowed us to retire. The level of status we’ve achieved – are we admired? Recognition: a legacy, a brand name on everyone’s lips – is that what we want, to be known, to be missed? To endure, long after we’ve left the Earth, our name continuing to be mentioned – is that why we seek attention? To be an open book, our lives on show, accessible to others, a mentor or a host?
Why do we equate success with fame, when all that matters is our good name? Our conscience. Whether we’ve tried our best and had good intentions. Whether we have been kind and truthful, and considered our actions and their impact on others. Have we mended our lives and relationships and created everything we have to show for ourselves with courage, honour and integrity? Have we made mistakes and tried to put them right, and given up the need to struggle and fight? Are we comfortable with ourselves – can we look ourselves in the mirror and come to terms with who we are, without needing the approval of anyone else?
Acceptance comes from within. Everything that captures our attention really only points back to us. Our journey, our feelings – our inner knowing. Our perception: our acute understanding of what is right for us, and what feels right as we in turn relate to others. Sharing our gifts or our insights, reaching outwards to those around us that travel the same way, onwards and upwards – trying to keep pace – for the ceiling awaits.