Peace of Mind/Success?
My thoughts around this question of Peace of Mind/Success came about when I was reading True Success by Dan Pedersen yesterday morning. I believe he writes for Medium. It must be something I signed up for as it was a new post by him in my mailbox. He put a quote there by Nassim Taleb which drew my attention: “True success is exiting some rat race to modulate one’s activities to peace of mind.” I’ve always associated success with consciously entering pursuits of various sorts, rather than exiting them. Of course, there’s “success” and “true success” which Dan Pedersen’s post was about. After having been in the rat race myself for many years of my life, I have a good idea what this race entails.
Dan Pedersen’s post continues with: Find inner peace. Find freedom. These are the things that matter. Not more possessions or more notoriety. The question doesn’t always have to be “how can I get more?” Sometimes it should be “what do I need […] I found this to be very profound and is the reason I’m sharing it in this Medium post. By the way, I don’t know Pedersen and he doesn’t know me.
I didn’t know what image to use for my post, and, as luck would have it, I came across this wonderful title and cover photo “What is Peace?” in the bookstore. It’s a children’s book. My own personal experience of peace and it’s absence arose when I was in about second grade. There was a little boy I was put next to in school who pinched me several times a day. This brought me no end of stress and worry (terms I was unfamiliar with at that age). Even when he was admonished about this, he kept doing it. My peace of mind was only restored when the teacher decided to skip me a grade and put me in third grade. The war between us came to an end. “Let go of the people who dull your shine, poison your spirit, and bring you drama.” Anonymous
Every person today knows that peace is not the absence of war. There’s the war between countries and the wars being waged in workplaces, schools, hospitals, and anywhere people have to dwell together. Despite how nice, cooperative, and friendly our innate nature is, there are times of conflict in life. “When things are not working for us, instead of fighting and struggling, we need to say, “What’s happening here? How am I not being true to who I am? What is pulling me away from my purpose?” — June Singer
To get back to the quote that inspired me to do this post, the rat race is a part of almost everyone’s life — as long as we have to work and make a living and life for ourselves and, perhaps, for our families, if we have any. In fact, I tend to think that the rat race starts the minute a child enters kindergarten. This is where the competition, comparisons, and striving for success begins.
Our teachers and educators mean well and our systems of education but “success” means knowing your ABC’s, your numbers, and whatever else is taught. Success in school is about doing well and fitting in. The child who is creative and has their own ideas and opinions is often seen as a trouble-maker. “The principle goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” - Jean Piaget
Whatever our own rat race is or has been, carving out the time and space to “exit” once in a while or pare down our activities will definitely help our peace of mind. For adults, worldly success is about achievement, goals, deadlines, productivity, and “doing” more and “having” more. We sometimes look down on people who are not busy or upwardly mobile. We say they have no ambition. “Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
The kind of success that comes from having freedom, peace of mind, and contentment in life may very well come from asking the question: “what do I need?” (Dan Pedersen, above) It may not come from being overly ambitious or staying in the rat race. We may very well find that we need a lot less than we “buy” into. I’ll bring these thoughts and reflections to an end here by again sharing the quote that caused me to reflect in this way.
“TRUE SUCCESS IS EXITING SOME RAT RACE TO MODULATE ONE’S ACTIVITIES TO PEACE OF MIND.” (Nassim Taleb)
