Success Is Just Beyond Reach… Thankfully
I’ve endured three sequential editions of the Ice Age movies and my heart has been repeatedly broken for Scrat, a pre-historic saber-toothed squirrel who can’t ever seem to hang on to his acorn. He’s absorbed immense pain and turmoil in his hunt and every time he gets within reach, something else happens to frustrate his chase.
Scrat’s plight reminds me of the chase for success. Some people are content to simply survive, but in some of us, there is an intense desire for more than survival – we want to be successful and significant. But as John Maxwell says, “Success is a moving target!”
When it comes to the blogging industry, success has a variety of definitions. We measure it in terms of traffic, followers, subscribers and readers, or income and revenue. Personally, I define success in blogging more in terms of reach or influence than dollars and pageviews, but no matter how you define success, it’s always a little bit elusive. It remains just beyond reach, like Scrat’s acorn.
The bittersweet truth about this moving target of success is that we will never quite arrive. We talk about the “pinnacle” of success, but I don’t believe any pinnacle exists. We’re always on a continuous journey. There are always better articles to write, new readers to reach, more connections to be made, and more conversations to be had.
It’s bitter in that it keeps us chasing, often exhausted in our pursuit of a target never quite achievable. But it’s sweet in that this elusiveness is what keeps us chasing, and it’s the chase that defines us.
Over the next few days you’ll see several posts here at Fuel Your Blogging about the subjects of success and failure from some talented guest authors. I simply want to challenge you to keep chasing. Keep reading, studying, connecting, writing, trying, improving, and reaching for the ever-elusive pinnacle of success.
Brandon has been doing web and logo design and this blogging thing for about six years. He’s also a Pastor at Saddleback Church in southern California, where he lives with his wife and kids. You can catch him on Twitter or Facebook.
was that his name? ’scrat’? … i never knew!
That was it – there’s a cool new short film out just about Scrat – it’s quite good.
That is a very good point.As soon as we get close to our goals we just push it that little bit further away, we are never happy with where we get too.
It’s the tyranny of goals, which is positive much of the time.
That squirrel is the reason I watch that movie. Hilarious!
But…the point you make is true. Real success is knowing to celebrate the small successes as you continue to chase the nut.
You’re absolutely right about that, Robb!
HAHA SCRAT! He has a name. I loved the first Ice Age, I think it came out when I was 12 or so? Not sure, I remember laughing so hard.
Good post!
What? 12? Ice Age came out in 2002, the year my daughter was born. Thanks for the reminder of how rapidly my life is sliding away… ;)
Great article! Thanks much.
No problem!