Regardless of the definition of success and where it derived from, the first step begins with “Me” – the Self.
Imagine for a moment that success is tangible as a rock such as you can see, touch and feel it.
It is a sensible to have the understanding that the rock is incapable of moving toward you. Your eyes are gazing at the rock – in order to touch and feel it, it is logical to take the first step toward it.
It may be an extreme statement to say that most people do not take the first step toward a personal goal or an endeavor.
However, it is a reality that the majority of the population does not readily put in time and effort unless they are in a bind – regardless how personal the person may perceive of the goal or the endeavor.
Divorces, bankruptcies, health challenges are the typical binds that have the clout and the weight to nudge people out of complacency.
For many – financial success, undying love and vitality are nothing more than an ideal that continuously being romanticized by the mind.
Sporadic efforts exerted here and there, but as soon as the challenge and hardship inevitably showed up in everything in life that worth anything – the person will revert back to the romanticism of the mind.
Why does the mass of humanity spend more time think about success more than actually invest real effort?
The mass of humanity have been domesticated in a civil setting for approximately 10,000 years – give and take.
The scale of aggregation for the human species is unprecedented in the entire animal kingdom – considering of the complexity of the species in the evolutionary of biology and psychology.
The massive scale of social structure evolved slowly and steady overtime as the population size takes off from the stable equilibrium in the hundreds of millions to the billions and counting.
As the size of the social structure increases, generation after generation of new comers are, were and will be conditioned to live out their entire lives within the range of normal distribution – the average range as depicted in the graph below.
The majority of the world population will stay within with the average range in all aspects of life – financial, obesity, divorce, education, instant gratification are just the tip of the iceberg.
When they fall below average, stress is arisen from the social structure, they will try to pick themselves up and move back into the social acceptable range.
When they rise above the average, the competition will heat up and they will revert back into the social acceptable range to ease the induced stress and seek for personal comfort.
The mass will only fantasize success as real effort will take them out of the comfort zone – the average norm.
Let’s for a moment split life into three simple categories –
- Power, status, fame, meaning and legacy as P-Category of life
- Mortgages, car payments, families, marriages and children as N-Category of life
- Foods, drugs, entertainments and experiences as H-Category of life
The result of 10,000 years of civilization and the advancement of scientific endeavors that ultimately expanded the life expectancy of the global population – gave rise to the evermore of people who are living and striving for P-Category life.
Life in the P-Category gives the sense of control over the animalistic instinct the human species shared as the commonality with other animals.
The people in the P-Category are typically financially more secure and highly educated in comparison to the general population. As a result, they have been conditioned and trained to push the outer limit of the wild-west in human consciousness.
Who are they?
They are the entrepreneurs, the scientists, the CEOs, the doctors, the lawyers, the politicians – the movers and the shakers of all societies around the world – money is the mean to power, status, fame, meaning and legacy for people in the P-Category.
Life in the N-Category is statistically where the majority of the population was, is and will live out the natural lifespan – it is the heartbeat of the species reproductive system.
They are for the most part comfortable in the average bubble designed by the people in the P-Category. The life style in this comfort zone for the most the most part starts right after puberty – where the process of conditioning to the statistical average begins to take place.
The people who are residing within the N-Category of life have a very simple life cycle mindset – get a job, find a mate, have children and die.
Who are these people?
They are the world population minus the people in the P-Category as defined above.
As long as the engineered life in the statistical average range supports the job, mate and children for the mass, the people in the N-Category will be happily accepted the average – and life outside of the bubble is nothing more than a romantic ritual of the mind.
Lastly, the H-Category of life!
As defined above, the people who live lives in the N-Category are the world population minus the people in the P-Category.
If this definition is accepted then there should be no one left to be lived in the H-Category.
But in fact the population of people who are living in the H-Category is growing.
Who are they?
They are the defects from the P-Category and the N-Category – the pleasure seeking population.
For whatever was their endeavor in life, power, status, legacy or just the plain and simple of being responsible for the family – stressed them out so much that they are residing to pleasures seeking as the mean to biologically return to the homeostasis condition.
The people in the P-Category who devoted most of their lives to seek something beyond the average bubble. If they failed to find it, psychologically they see themselves as prisoners of the average life – a colossal failure.
Interestingly, the majority of the population will find the average life is acceptable.
The people in the N-Category whose entire lifespan is gravitated to stay within the boundary of the average bubble – very few will transition to the P-Category, and many will fall as victims to the H-Category life style.
The reason for the very few success of transition from N-Category to P-Category way of life is simple – it requires the level ambition, perseverance and determination most do not have the willingness to go for the distance.
The fall from N-Category to H-Category of life is simply biology – it is an animalistic instinct to seek pleasures.
Life can be categorized as P-Category, N-Category and H-Category for purpose of intellectual endeavor. However, a successful life in execution will be a mixture of all three.
Mortgages, car payments, families, marriages and children are the bulk of life – the things that give the definition and meaning to living.
Power, status, fame, meaning and legacy are the icing on the cake – the opportune of creativity humanity has given to itself through the progress of long lasting civilization.
Foods, drugs, entertainments and experiences are the nectars – serve as biological reminders that living in the moment an indispensable component in living – enabling the experience of life in its fullest.
Let’s play the Game of Life!
