Why Chasing After Success Is So Futile

Goals. Most of us have them. They're our ambitions, our drives, our passions. Most of the time goals are great. They help keep us on track. The one goal I would never wish anyone to make is to "be successful".

I know, I know, that may seem strange. What's wrong with success you may ask? There's absolutely nothing wrong with success, but chasing after it -- having it as your goal -- is only going to lead to disappointment. The reason for this is because when we're chasing our goal of success, it's such a fleeting achievement.

If you have a clear sense of what success is to you, then more power to you. But for so many people, when we've reached our goal we don't fully celebrate it and we simply create a new goal to move onto. It's like kicking a can down the road. You can kick it really, really far, and that's amazing, but what then? If your goal is simply "to be successful", then you have an incredibly nebulous goal that is nearly impossible to achieve because it's undefined. It's fine to want to be successful, but we must ask ourselves "What does that really mean to me?" "What is my definition of success?" "How will I celebrate my achievements when I reach them?"

Truth be told, this is a huge issue for goals in general. Goals *are* great. Really. But a lot of the time they tend to be undefined and because of that they're hard to reach. How will you know you've reached your goal if you don't even really know what it is?

If you're a goal-setter, be specific. Know what you're going after but also know how you're going to celebrate once you've achieved it. Don't feel the need to simply jump atop a new goal.