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outlier_lynn

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Sunday, July 14th, 2002 06:20 pm
An Inquiry into categorization of life.

The art of measuring success and failure is extremely complicated.

Some may say that it is easy to tell if you set up goals that have specific measurable results, specific times for completion of each step along the way and an unbiased observer to watch your progress. Those folks would not be wrong for task oriented success or failure.

But there are other things in life besides tasks, goals, clocks and calendars. Success and failure is much harder to predict and impossible to declare in any objective reality.

For instance, a couple is married for 25 years. They divorce. Was their relationship a success or failure? Do those words have meaning in that context? What if they didn't divorce, but spent fifty years loathing each other? Successful marriage between two people in an unsuccessful relationship?

And what standard is used to compare against? Personal philosophy, religious teachings, societal expectations?

Who has the right or authority to decide if a life was or was not successful?

So such sayings as "If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem" carry an implication of success/failure in the way individuals live?
Sunday, July 14th, 2002 06:57 pm (UTC)
I was in the bath this afternoon, popping bubbles (the sound of one bubble bathing is 'pop' if it gets near me!) and realizing that everything I do has to have some purpose whether it's eating (can I justify the calories, how much fat is in it, etc) to writing poetry (will people like it, will it mean something to someone, etc). I'm not planning to abandon all purpose but I'm going to try and add a little more "why not?" to my life and shed a bit more of my goal-oriented nature... at least refine and narrow my goals to a few things and be more specific instead of having a seemingly infinite number of different and sometimes conflicting goals to achieve.

I also thought that I felt really good and wondered why that nice feeling wasn't my natural state, or why I didn't pursue it more. And then I realized that comfort/feeling good wasn't on my goal list. I'm sure there's something I can drop to make room for it.
Sunday, July 14th, 2002 09:55 pm (UTC)
Don't make room for it -- start with it and work everything else in!