Day 003: Success

Song of the day: Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Did you know? This inspiration for this song came from the lead singer Gary's infatuation with a girl. His father told him, "You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and you just wouldn't know what to do with it if you did." Make sense now?

My brother and I stayed up till 5 in the morning trying to sing this song. We got the Samson mic and Avid preamp (and it sounds beautiful compared to our old 1/4" crap mic) but there's one problem -- we can't sing.

Granted this isn't top of the line equipment and we ain't rock stars, but hitting the notes would be a plus.

My problem at the end of the day (night) was singing too softly. It was frustrating knowing I could sing more strongly (like in the car) but that I was holding back for some reason. Maybe because I'd rather put the mic in a stand than hold it.

Point is, there are tons of things that I want to do and projects I want to finish, but that are hard to do, giving little sense of accomplishment.

In Critical Thinking (class) the other day, we were asked to define success:

Success is the achievement of a goal that gives a feeling of accomplishment.

However, if you haven't had much success with things, not only will you have a lower self-esteem, you won't be able to have much success with achieving new goals, especially big ones.

Question is: how do we achieve big goals?
The answer: little successes.

Little successes (milestones) are the things that keep us going to achieve an ultimate goal. Happiness is your fuel, ambition is your fire. Use the happiness of little successes to fuel your ambition for big goals.

Even if it doesn't seem like very much of a challenge, doing something that's easily achievable can give you fuel (happiness). For me, that's photography; it's easy to do, and I get a feeling of success after I post a finished picture. This is a hobby.

A hobby is a goal that is easily achievable, and upon achievement gives happiness.

So have a big goal to reach for (like singing a song), but keep in mind the little things and hobbies that are easy to do and do them (like taking pictures), and use the happiness you get from them to achieve your big goal.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. ~Albert Schweitzer