Success, Power of Thought, and Goal Setting

Pablo Picasso

I‘ve written previously that I preferred “goals” to “ambitions”. I think it was in 2007, and by 2010 my point of view has changed only slightly. I’ll never stop thinking about goals, but, speaking of ambitions, my ambition is my success. And to spare you my own musings, as well as to give you some food for thought, here is a quote from Pablo Picasso:

Success is something very important! It has often been said that the artist should work for himself, for the ‘love of art’, so to speak, and despise success. That is wrong! An artist needs success. And not only to live on, but also to be able to create. Even a rich painter needs success. Only a few people understand anything about art, and a feeling for painting has not been given to everyone. Most people judge art by its success. So why leave success to the “success painters”? Every generation has had theirs. But where is it written that success should always belong to those who flatter the public? I wanted to prove that you can be successful in spite of everything and everyone, without compromising oneself. Do you know what? My success as a young painter has been my protective wall. My Blue and Rose periods were the screen, behind which I felt secure.

In one of the most recent posts on this blog I mentioned some difficulties that were to do with the previous experience at different workplaces. I’ve found the way to overcome this experience by turning to the years when I was at my absolute best – with all consequences. On occasion I have to go back over 13 years, but it is that very “protective wall” that Picasso speaks about. A massive achievement happened in 1997, then again in 2006, and to this day those are some of the things I am hugely proud of.

Of course, as Einstein put it, the older we grow the more narrow-minded we become, and this diminishes the chances of success. For this reason it is twice as important to continuously revisit those great achievements because deep within us we will still possess this reservoir of self-belief and passion that made those achievements possible.

Another thing that is very close to self-belief, passion, and the desire to succeed is the power of thinking. I am sure a lot of us have experienced moments when our thoughts suddenly materialised. Whether those were good or bad things depends on what we were thinking about. I am glad to say that the opportunity I have wanted for myself since 2008 is now there. I wanted to travel regularly, to meet new people, to be creative, to be rewarded, to be successful, and now I have it all, and there will be more. But it requires some adjustments in lifestyle, which is the reason why there was a pause in blogging since the end of January.

And now to goals. As you might know, I used to blog in Russian over at LiveJournal since 2007. Some observations that I made towards the end of 2009 made me decide to make my LJ private and to continue the adventure here. My goal is very simple: with a nod from Google under the belt, by the end of 2010 I want to be the best multilingual blogger.

Another goal, still related to this blog, is to catch up on everything I wanted to post because there is a lot.

I will also be promoting some of the work I am doing for another site this month. The work is paid, but I am sure you will be glad to follow the links to short, witty articles about Manchester (with photos, of course!)

A project I started last year will now continue because this is my huge goal. It involves a life-long interest in Literature, Cinema, and Translation. I vowed to do it, and now I have every opportunity to accomplish it.

I know I said that I didn’t want to write about the goals, and I’m not reneging on my promise. I didn’t say what the goals are, except for one or two, and the good news is that they are not just for this month.

Finally, because my work doesn’t tire my brain, there is a plenty of room for creativity, and I will make sure I share some of the results with you.

In the end, my main message is that we can always achieve things we really want. To quote Paul Arden,

The photo of Pablo Picasso is courtesy of Masterworksfineart.com.