Title credit: Winston Churchill

Let’s own up. Success is the panacea to making everything right and jolly. Once we have success, everything will be ok.

Of course it is true.

But it is definitely not the whole Truth.

The thing is, success is in its essence, such a personal thing.

Yet we have made it into a ‘one-size fits all’ coat.

Success has become either this, or this – anything not in line with the script, it is not.

What if there were no script, in fact, no word such as success?

• Would you still be doing what you do?
• Living where you live?
• Being with the person you are with?
• Doing Yoga?
• And eating broccoli by the kilograms?

See? That’s why I like Churchill’s take on it – it kind of takes the pressure off – and it brings back a sense of, dare I say, Humour?

 

The thing about a Panacea

The definition that I love is this one – a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases.

Take anything, from yoga, to travelling, to meditation right through to golf. They are all, in some way, a kind of panacea.

The real question is – why do we believe we need a panacea – or things to be different than what they are? Why do we need to succeed?

Because the human, apparently, struggles to be content. There must somehow always be more, or something other, out there, somewhere. This, surely, can’t be it.

 

Yoga as Teacher, Despite the Resistant Student

My Yoga practice again served to enlighten me. Because I started experiencing this endless search, almost demand, for success in my Yoga practice.

I’m talking Yoga!, Not Rat Race, or corporate Legoland – no, something as benign as Yoga.

I caught myself starting to feel pressurised. By myself.

That sneaky feeling creeping up, with this firm little voice, telling me to up my game. How about doing 2 classes a day, or a workshop every weekend, or try all the yoga styles on earth?

And what happened?

My body bombed out.

And I started feeling very averse to doing my practice.

It became a schlepp. Yes, you read me – a schlepp. Now, in the 3000 years plus of the known existence of Yoga, has it ever existed to be a schlepp?

I used Yoga to get to my so called idea of success. I started Doing Yoga, instead of Being Yoga.

 

Of Course, It had Nothing to do with Yoga, only with My Idea of Success

I have come to the understanding that it is not so much success we are chasing, but rather the not to fail.

And in whose eyes will we be failing?

No, not the world or family or society.

We do not want to fail ourselves. Yet we set these standards.

If I was just starting to stand on one leg for more than a minute in my Yoga practice – MY obvious NEXT STEP would be to try the tightrope across Victoria Falls.

See what I mean?

 

Finding the Balance and then, Not Giving a Damn

Back to my Yoga mat.

In just showing up, I have already succeeded. And failed with enthusiasm.

In just managing through 5 Sun Salutations instead of 74 (or whatever), I have succeeded. And failed with enthusiasm.

In eating only one super healthy meal a day instead of 3, I have succeeded. And failed with enthusiasm.

The body is grateful. The heart is at peace. I have given my best on that given day.

And the funny thing is, once I stopped the pressure and the playing into some imaginary pressure, I was content.

 

Going from Failure to Failure with Enthusiasm

So maybe we do need a panacea, or Yoga or a magic carpet.

Maybe we do need words like success with a ‘one size fits all’ coat, thrown in for good measure.

All these are tools, teachers and way showers on our individual paths. Our paths of unique self-expression and self-exploration.  

 

But the one thing we cannot be without 

Is enthusiasm.

That, is the game changer.