Your story about success … is a story. About success.
Success isn’t real. It’s a way of “feeling” the joy, a feeling which we experience for the desired outcome. Success is worthy because everyone else agrees with its worth.
But there’s something important going on here.
We don’t actually agree on a common definition of success because each person’s degree of success is based on the stories they have believed in.
A degree from Stanford is merely a certificate, some ink written on the paper, but it’s an indication. It’s an indication that the person has gone through a rigorous process of educating herself.
It is surrounded by stories about what people have accomplished in their lives after studying at Stanford.
We tell ourselves a story about how people will judge us when we study at Stanford.
We tell ourselves a story about what people will think if we drop out.
We tell ourselves a story. Of success. We perceive success in a way we have learned to perceive success.
So yes, there’s a success. But before there’s a success, there’s a story.
It turns out once you change the story, the success changes too.
