All of us have an innate instinct to achieve. Achievement might occur on the work front, or in relationships, or on a personal, perhaps “inner” level.
Many of us, whenever we have spare time—say about thirty minutes or more—instinctively want to use that time to achieve more on one or many fronts.
For some, achievement is an outer “measure”—how people and the community see you, your name, your fame, and your economic status.
Whereas achievement for others is measured on an inner level—the state of your mind, contentment, happiness, and fulfillment.
Whatever our measure (inner or outer, or a combination of both), along with it we also have a “scale.” The scale represents the various gradations of success that each of us mentally decide for ourselves (knowingly or subconsciously).
“Time” is another important ingredient that goes into the mix; this is the actual passage of time (weeks, months, or years).
When we closely examine these four elements (achievement, measurement, scale, and time), we can establish a mental-work-model framework. This framework helps us better manage failures and disappointments.
Failure can now be defined as:
If I don’t achieve a mental measure (the scale of success or rate of work I have in mind) in the amount to time I deemed possible and appropriate—I have feelings of rejection, disappointment, and failure. This is my model of success or failure.
Now that you have this knowledge of the mental-work-model, you can tweak two elements—scale of success and time—to defer (if not totally avoid) feelings of failure.
. . . You could readjust the scale of success to match the planned timeline.
Or . . . you could increase the timeline if you don’t want to scale down success.
We all want to be achievers, we all want to be successful, we all want to win. One way to get to that point of achievement, success, and victory is by tweaking and readjusting the two core elements that lie inside us—time and scale of success.