What is real achievement to you? How do you measure it?

Cayce, Van Gogh and the Pursuit of Lasting Achievement

Over the Christmas Break i had begun reading for the first time a
book called “The Essential Edgar Cayce” and was amazed at Cayce’s
extraordinary life…yet more importantly for me, his spiritual
philosophies.

I had first heard of Cayce in 2005 when i attended a psychic faire in
Ohio. While i was quite sceptical of the idea of being psychic, and
many self proclaimed psychics do nothing to quell such scepticism with
their antics and tall claims, i attended nonetheless. While i came away
from the faire with my scepticism intact, the name of Edgar Cayce stayed
with me.

The Essential Edgar Cayce, written by Mark Thurston, introduced me to
some of the core philosophies of the man, and i was intrigued by one of
these philosophies in particular.

Success cannot be measured by material standards

“we should not attempt to measure spiritual things by material
standards, nor material things by spiritual standards”, according to the
book, is something that Cayce stated in a reading to someone.

In other words, those of us who go through life struggling, possibly
even struggling financially while doing what we love, should not be
considered to be lacking in progress completely. perhaps there is a
spiritual progress being made, much like the ascetics in Tibet who own
little to nothing. What the human eye sees from a materialistic
viewpoint may condemn the poverty stricken because the major centre of
importance is on money, of which the impoverished among us, have little
to none.

Admittedly there have been a few friends close to me who have
stressed that i have achieved a lot with my writing and art, regardless
of if it has actually made me any money personally. Due to the kind of
society we live in, more often i am reminded of the complete opposite
opinion…that if money is not made from our achievements (excluding
parenthood and things of that nature of course) we may well have
achieved nothing. If that is the case…considering that not one of us
takes any possessions with us to the next life, then the whole idea of
achievement must be reexamined.


I am always inspired by the stories of people who follow their dreams
or their compulsions, even though they may be downtrodden financially.
According to the book, Cayce struggled with poverty during the time of
the great depression and his work as a photographer was hindered by two
separate incidents where his studio actually burned down.

Vincent Van Gogh, throughout the past few years now, has been one of
those figures in history which gives me comfort both as a struggling
writer and artist. I am struggling, but i am not exhausted! Van Gogh is
now, by many, considered a genius, his paintings fetching millions
(mainly bought as a left brain dominant financial investment as opposed
to a right brain appreciation for the actual painting itself)

I have wondered if true achievement may be a combination of inner
peace, undeterred by both the joys and sorrows of life (which both
Buddha and Krishna taught as being the one thing to strive for) an
uncluttered mind, and touching at least one person’s heart.

I am open to answers. Perhaps there are more knowledgeable people on the matter. I’d like to hear from you!

P.S...is there a way to get email notifications sent to your hotmail account etc if people reply to your blogs?...i'm finding it hard to keep up without everything online and wondered if there was a way of doing that. Thanks

We all decide what success is for ourselves. However, this:

Quote :

those of us who go through life struggling, possibly
even struggling financially while doing what we love, should not be
considered to be lacking in progress completely. perhaps there is a
spiritual progress being made,

is a false dichotomy. It's not either/or. You can be financially well-off and make spiritual progress. The way it's written, it sounds like sour grapes. "I'm struggling, but am spiritually holier than you."

My goalposts are modest. If I don't make them, I won't feel successful. At least successful in those areas. Maybe success is like a chart with rows of entries.

Like you said, success is an undefinable word. It is an individual conception. Spirits are as vaporous and undefined or nailed down as the idea of success. The human brain cannot be pigeon holed..Ideas are as diverse as humanity it's own self. It would be like swimming in mush to make sense of it.

Love,

Betty

1/2/2013

I may not have made money with my writing , Art, Photography,

but it gives me a spiritual fufillment, knowing that I created

and wrote eight books published, painted on canvas, having my minds

eye when it comes to photography, it amazes me what the human

brain can do. I do know I'm not happy when I'm not creating wether

it's writing, photography.....

Cheers..Joe..

Success for me is making someone happy.

I want to cheer people up.

Good subject Alphonse.
Napoleon Hill defines success as: "The progressive realization of a worthy ideal."

I think if we achieve what we set out to achieve, we are successful. Unfortunately many in our society define success on a monetary scale. Having money as a goal is futile. You can have all the money in the world and starve to death. You can't eat or drink it. Money is a tool to buy things. What is it we want to buy? That should be the goal. The money will come when our goals are defined. Having said that and putting money aside, success/achievement can be defined as having reached our goals, whatever they may be. If our goal was to write a book and we did that, we are successful. It has nothing to do with whether the book made huge sales. If the goal was to write a book and make a lot of money, and it didn't make a lot of money, then we were only partly successful.
Goals should be realistic. Punishing ourselves because we didn't achieve unrealistic goals is foolhardy.

Thanks LC




I’m sorry if it seemed I was implying that it
was either/or. I did not mean it that way. What I was trying to convey was that
much of society views progress in terms of finance and how much money we can
accumulate, so much so that most of us (including myself from time to time)
assume that that is what progress actually is...and thus my question. What is real progress to you and to everyone here Was really just curious.

As far as being spiritually
minded, I feel that spirituality is more than one thinking they are closer to
God, the universe etc…it extends out towards the welfare of humanity as a
whole. I don't feel i'm spiritually better than anyone else.

Have you read Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth?

You can download a copy for 71p here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/An-Autobiography-Story-Experiments-ebook/dp/B001EWEB5I

Great replies by the way, i really appreciate everyone taking the time to write. As many have pointed out here, it is true that achievement will mean different things to different people.

Thanks Shelagh. I've not read it yet, but it sounds interesting! Cheers

I live in a very wealthy area of Florida, and juried art shows are plentiful at the malls. Great art is displayed in little white tents while the public wanders through. The prices range from affordable to off the cliff for every art form imaginable. Some distance away is the caravan of vehicles these talented people drive from one show to another in a vagabond lifestyle then paint and sculpt for the public in their tents or sit for hours on a stool talking to potential customers.

I couldn't live that way. I manage to sell at book signings and writing conferences, but it it very uncomfortable. Art seems to be a struggling form of life for most, lucrative for the select few. Probably like real estate, 20% of the sales people make 80% of the sales - or something like that.

Writing has become very competitive with ever greater demands for promotion to become noticed. Sometimes it feels like selling fuller brushes. The esoteric and philosophical gets lost in the necessary and the practical.

Yet, we follow paths in life that we choose or find ourselves compelled along - and garner what joy and satisfaction we can along the way.

Visited a book store today. The number of books available for sale is staggering. Of course I bought a book - couldn't resist, however it made me think of this thread and how we as authors must compete with the huge book market.
I didn't write a book so that I could personally sell it. The many offers I received from my PA publisher to purchase my own book became absurd.

Having said that, if one is unemployed and seeks an income, selling one's own books is a source of income. Whatever selling platform one decides to use, you should be enthusiastic about it. Enthusiasm overcomes lack of selling experience.

Alphonse Bocelli wrote:

Great replies by the way, i really appreciate everyone taking the time to write. As many have pointed out here, it is true that achievement will mean different things to different people.

... and as a consequence, we should only seek rewards that we alone find satisfying and not be influenced by what others seek.

Alphonse Bocelli wrote:

Great replies by the way, i really appreciate everyone taking the time to write. As many have pointed out here, it is true that achievement will mean different things to different people.

To me a sense of achievement is very simple...As I reflect back over my life I can honestly say, anything I truly wanted to do in my life, I got it done!

Don, I feel the same way. Getting to know oneself is a good start. Knowing your weaknesses, the tendency to "give up" or become frustrated and start in another direction, etc.
Knowing what you want is the first step. Because so many people want everything at once, they wind up getting nothing. I have found that defining goals and setting priorities of what goal to pursue first gets one on the right path. Just as any ship can only reach one port at a time, the same is true with goals.
I can honestly say that every goal I have set for myself that I truly wanted, I achieved. Wishful thinking doesn't do it. Taking action, sometimes burning bridges is the stimulus needed to propel one forward. Having something to lose if one doesn't reach a goal is a good stimulus.
Just my experience on things.

Unless one really wants what they set out to do, they are wasting their time. Might just as well play the lottery.

Not me. I want to see Ghost Orchid in a Halmark or Lifetime movie. I want to wear some of those clothes in the back of the closet. I want to run six miles again.

On the other hand; I do have a book trailer for Ghost Orchid that I could consider a "movie;" those back closet clothes were worn the year Ghost Orchid was published and I was running three miles in 2006 and six miles in 2000 - so I guess I accomplished those goals already - and need new ones.

I would like to take a train with a sleeping car across the U.S. and a cruise ship around the Mediterranean. I would like to know the thrill of a great love once more...even for a short while.