Is achieving success worth it?

Perhaps we have all asked the question, "is it worth it?" Humans are motivated by pain and pleasure- they try to avoid pain and procure pleasure. However, sometimes they choose to go through pain in order to obtain a greater pleasure and sometimes they choose to forego pleasure in order to avoid a greater pain. For example, cookies are very pleasurable to eat but some people choose not to partake so as to avoid the pain of cavities or an obese body. To take another example, some people go through the pain of plastic surgery because they think the pleasure of a beautiful face outweighs the pain.

Success in any large endeavor, such as getting fabulously rich and famous, getting an incredible body, creating a booming business, being wildly fulfilled in life, etc., involves going through pain. It also involves delayment of gratification. It is easier and more immediately pleasurable to plop your butt down and play a video game than it is to go to the gym five days a week for six months and get a great body. It's more immediately pleasurable to eat a bunch of cookies than it is to eat a salad. So here is what I would like to discuss in this thread:

Does the pleasure of attaining a big goal outweigh the long-term pain it took to achieve it? Is it even worth setting big goals and striving to achieve them? Does the real pleasure lie in the process of achieving the goal and not the achievement itself? Feel free to discuss any of the above or anything related to the above but the essence of this whole thread is the question: "Is great success worth the pain and delayed gratification it takes to achieve it?" I say it is.

a reply to: limestone

No. You get roughly 80 years and that's it.

Having a lot of money to make sure your old age is secure and you don't have to live in a refrigerator box under a freeway overpass is definitely worth it.

The best thing to be is rich and anonymous.
The worst thing to be is poor and famous (or infamous).

Well, you have to look at the ramifications.

In the case of getting off your lazy butt and going to the gym, as you mentioned. There is not just the pleasure of looking good. It makes you feel good. Release the toxins — think clearly. I have spent lazy / depression time periods, and felt miserable. Then, the times when I get off my lazy butt and go to the gym: I burn it out, feel great and have an optimistic attitude on life. The proof is in the pudding.

On the other hand, if all you are focusing on is being rich, at whatever cost — you most likely will be miserable in the end. A good majority of people who take this path — do it at the expense of others. Which creates very unnecessary karmetic consequenses. Whether you believe in that or not, is up to you.

a reply to: limestone

Your idea of success is all wrong. People don't want to be successful. People want to experience what it means to feel alive:



We are all part of one story. Everyone want's to experience the hero's adventure.

a reply to: limestone

It starts with one thing
I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but you didn't even know
Wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me
Will eventually be a memory of a time when
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme
To remind myself of a time when
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me in the end
You kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter