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General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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Success and Succession
    #29678317 -

Success may be the outcome we want. If we are trying to exercise regularly, learn a skill or complete a project, it matters whether we achieve that aim. But success is not the whole picture, especially when the answer to “Did I succeed?” is no.

An unsuccessful attempt still leaves us somewhere. We may have learned what made the attempt difficult, changed part of our surroundings, gained some familiarity, or found that our approach needs revising. None of this turns the attempt into a success. It tells us what conditions we now have to work with.

This is where succession offers a helpful perspective. Each attempt begins from what previous attempts have left behind, and its result becomes part of the starting point for what follows. Instead of stopping at “I did not succeed”, we can ask what this attempt changed and what we can change from here.

Success remains the aim. Succession gives us a way to keep working towards it when an individual attempt falls short.


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I am whatever Darwin needs me to be.


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Re: Success and Succession [Re: sudly]
    #29678342 -

I’ve been thinking about what happens after we ask, “Did I succeed?” If the answer is no, that tells us something about the aim, but it doesn’t tell us much about where to go from there.



That’s what I’m trying to explore with succession. We begin with conditions we’ve inherited, change something within them, and then continue from what that change leaves behind. The weights stored in a chest are a starting condition. A cut in the wood leaves a shape that the next cut has to work with. Identifying a leaf incorrectly might lead us to notice a feature we can use when looking at the next one.

I don’t think this makes an unsuccessful attempt a success. Success still asks whether the attempt achieved its aim. Succession asks what it left behind. That seems like a helpful question when the answer to the first one is no, because it lets us consider what has changed and what we can do from here.


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I am whatever Darwin needs me to be.


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Re: Success and Succession [Re: sudly]
    #29678367 -

a good way to connect the words up


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:brainfart: _ :finger:

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Re: Success and Succession [Re: sudly] * 1
    #29678377 -

sudly said:
But success is not the whole picture, especially when the answer to “Did I succeed?” is no.



This is so well said, what a nutshell right there, gracias.

I work in the mental health field, and this sort of thinking is right up my alley. Working with lots of folks who feel like an utter failure, because they have failed according to metrics they've been conditioned to put their self-worth in.

Of course, I myself have felt like a failure many times. I'm starting to wonder if there is a "little me" that sets a goal, and fails to achieve it, while simultaneously there is a "Big Me" or even a "BIG WE" that has its own, superior objectives which inevitably win out. Which is reassuring, if true, and then I need just work to adjust my perceptions until they align with the BIG.


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All communication
is pattern
and rhythm

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Re: Success and Succession [Re: Blue Cthulhu]
    #29678454 -

keep on heading in a good direction


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:brainfart: _ :finger:

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Re: Success and Succession [Re: redgreenvines]
    #29678471 -

which direction is that


--------------------
All communication
is pattern
and rhythm

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Re: Success and Succession [Re: Blue Cthulhu]
    #29678551 -

it is many directions - both familiar and strange

were it just what is familiar, then the freshness of renewal would be missing.

does that help a bit?

I think the question is more valuable than any answer could be, is the journey not a quest?


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:brainfart: _ :finger:

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General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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