For most of my life, I have tried hard to force my own success.  I desire to create something great and spend much of my time and resources in pursuit of that goal.  In so many ways I believe that this is a great character trait.  I hope that my daughters possess the same desire to achieve.  With that being said, I truly believe that the desire to create and achieve great things is present with some and absent with others.  I have been gifted with a mind that is constantly in re-design mode.  It is simply the way that I was wired.  Even though I am so glad to have this trait, I am easily discouraged when I spend weeks or months without a great idea.

But there is hope!

My greatest ideas have been thought up with little or no effort at all.  Many times I was merely in the right place at the right time.  An idea would enter my mind due to a visual cue or a concept I was contemplating.  I did not realize this fact until I actually sat down to think about the circumstances that surrounded the advent of those ideas.  What an amazing revelation!

After watching Elizabeth Gilbert speak at the TED conference last week, I now have a slightly different take on the subject of success and accomplishment.  I love how she talks about not being a genius but “having a genius”.   Some of the worlds greatest achievers were simply working at their passion until one day they had a genius.  Many times it was not something that they planned but something that just happened.

What a refreshing way to think about success.