Few days back I visited Pune University where I was having a chat with few of my juniors, who just appeared in exams and got their results along with me. Some had brilliant result whereas some didn’t have a happy ending.

So like always there was this motivational session post the result, on failure and success giving few examples from lives of Einstein, Chanakya and some other great men. I was keenly listening to the speech and trying to understand what sort of mindset today’s GenZ is going through after success and failure. And to my surprise one question in the question-answer round intrigued me.

The question was like this ….

“Everyone goes through downs. And thus all mention how to recover and bounce back from them –the Lows. But many times there’s one thing which really troubles us more. It’s not failure after it happens but looking forward – the Fear of Failure or Possibility of Failure. Every good outcome requires you to work or perform amazingly well but there is always a sense of potential failure or fear of failure at the back of the mind. ‘What if in-spite of……I fail?’ So everyone talks about how to deal with failure after it happens but how to deal with possibilities or the fear of failure before the action? How do we define it?”

And this question brought silence in the room. I was not very much happy with the answer given in the room after a while and this thought kept coming back to me again and again. The fear of failure can be sometime so powerful that it can avoid you from taking necessary action. It paralyses you on the path of action. And without action there can’t be success, leading you eventually to failure. So how to deal with it? How do we define it? But for me the answer was in the question itself. Stop defining what is Success and Failure.

Definition of anything brings limitation to that thing. Only a certain aspect is covered when you define something. When you define success, you limit it. You limit it to achievement or may be to result or may be to a comparison. So stop limiting by defining what is success and failure. In fact I believe we can’t actually define it even if we try to.

Lets Understand with an Example:

A person failing in 12^th grade and ending up running a tea-stall in comparison to his colleague, who gets admission in IIT, gives you a limited approach of success. While when the same Chai-wala becomes the prime minister of a country and the IITian working under him, it gives you a different angle of success.

According to spiritualists, success is not in the result. Success is not in the achievement, it is not in something that you get at the end. Or you can say that success is not the end. That’s not what defines success. According to spiritual teaching, success is in your endeavour, your intentions, your effort, the character that goes behind the noble thing you are trying to do. And once you have invested all of those things, whatever the result may be, is actually inconsequential, it’s already a success.

In reality none of us are in control of the result. There are other factors in the universe beyond our control which are affecting the results that we gain. So therefore if you try to measure success by results, not only will you feel a failure, but you will also be inhibited of even initiating the journey fearing failure.

You need understand that success is in the effort or you need to understand that the goal of life is not to be the best but try your best. And in trying your best, if the destiny has plans for you to be the best for the purpose of service and to make a world a better place then so be it. And vice versa, if the destiny’s plan is not for you to be the best, it doesn’t matter because you are still a success.

Gita Gyan

In the Bhagvad Gita, this is known as Karma Yoga or the art of working or the art of detached work. “Karm Karo, Phal Ki chinta Mat karo”

This is one of the most powerful teachings that people can use in life. In this world people are so stressed, people are so deflated, demoralized and depressed; it is all because they measure success in the wrong way. When we measure success in the wrong way, we fall to the cancers of the mind, competing with others, comparing with others. But you are on your own journey and you only need to do your best and that is success for me. How would you like to deal with it?