Success: A step ahead

Handling failure is not easy but success is something we all fervently strive for. Failure is accompanied with heartbreak but success surely brings new challenges along with its own rewards. Success brings new challenges, opportunities, privileges and makes one the centre of attention. Then how are there stresses and challenges associated with success?

Actually after being successful one is under pressure to perform even better and the challenge is to maintain the same criterion that brought success. You might feel people are talking about the same thing and asking you questions that might end up irritating you. New tasks are assigned and sometimes others are harsh in their judgment. They just overlook human imperfections!

There are people who just forget who they were before success came their way; they just don’t know the meaning of humility and easily fly off the handle. On the other hand, there are those who just shy away from all the attention bestowed on them. Being in the limelight is not right for them. Be it winning a match at university, standing first in
examinations, getting straight As or getting a promotion at work, they just hate being the centre of attention.

Maria who got straight As in Grade X at her school was under constant pressure from her teachers and peers to maintain the same level of performance in Grade XI. She knew from the very beginning that she won’t be able to maintain the success and became very quiet in class. This undue pressure in fact distracted her from her studies and ultimately
she fell far beyond what was expected of her in the final exams.

Hira, an eighth grader and a constant high achiever in her class feels that it’s not pressure from teachers or parents but her own resolve not to fall behind that drives her. She says that she studies at pre-designated fixed timings at home but shies away from any attention given to her.

Sometimes the reason for not being able to maintain success is fatigue, exhaustion and the effort taken in the first incidence of success. It might have drained you of your energy!

Otherwise it can be inconsistent behaviour and just bad luck. If the first success came easily you might think it will be the same situation again. But such is not the case!

The following tips will help you maintain success:

Be a better time manager:

Realise that all things that are good and you enjoy are not important.

Categorise your work in four groups: Important and urgent; not urgent but important; not important but urgent; and not urgent and not important. Proceed with the different tasks at hand in accordance with prioritisation assigned to each task.

Plan Ahead: Remember Murphy’s Law ‘If anything can go wrong it will’. Look at the previous checklist and you will see that certain tasks are important but not urgent. If they are handled in time and well ahead they can save you future trouble which can be serious at times.

Polish your skills: Keep yourself updated by reading a lot. Also attend different trainings and skill building workshops. Certain outcomes which you might be considering external may actually be a result of your own weaknesses and flaws and hence internally controllable.

Find suitable intervals for work in your timetable: There are certain times of the day when you are more efficient than the rest of the day. This is the peak of your energy cycle. It’s better to utilise that part of the day to do the most demanding set of work.

Stay calm: Success does bring pressure but remember this pressure could be due to others’ expectations and not actually ‘you’. Worrying will not bring any results; it would rather make you frustrated and impatient.

Do your best and leave the rest to God: Success does not come easily. Being cruel to yourself and over-stretching are not your goals. Think of all the effort you have put in to achieve the goal and don’t get distracted. Look at the positive side of success.

Don’t get over confident: Thinking that the task was not all that difficult can make you over confident. You have achieved the feat once and doing it the next time should not be a problem. This can be the cause of failure as the circumstances are different all the time, for instance there can be more competition.

It’s important to remember that success or failure doesn’t matter: what matters is the effort you put in. If you don’t succeed there’s always a second time. Imagine the difference if the first line of this article would read ‘for the successful and famous only’.

-- Maria Morten