A friend of mine once said “I’ve worked hard enough, I deserve to make more money”. It struck me as a strange statement, because up until that moment, I had sort of left the determination of what I’m worth up to others.
I was raised to believe that you get what you deserve. It was a common theme throughout my childhood that I was punished if I mis-behaved and rewarded when I acted as was expected of me. It was a very fair and honest way to raise a kid. But now as an adult, I’m struck by my own limited view of justice.
Life is not truly as fair or honest as my Beaver-Cleaver childhood left me to believe. Especially in today’s job market. You can’t expect to be rewarded grandly for putting your head down and trying your hardest. Although I am a firm believer in karma, I’ve finally realized that the world does not just deliver wealth and success to you just because you “deserve” it.
We would all like to think that we will be successful simply because of our hard work. But any “how to be successful” book will tell you that most of the time, success is the resulting combination of hard work, luck, good timing, and knowing the right people. And unfortunately, there is no “right” combo of these things. You probably know more than one person who is successful, not because of hard work, but really only because he/she knew the right person.
But there is one other element that isn’t often discussed in “how to be successful” books – expectations. People who expect to be successful often are – not just because they expect to, but because they couple that expectation with the other 4 elements. They see themselves as deserving of success, and as cocky as that might be, that confidence and flat-out expectation that they will succeed is the driving factor to making all the other elements work together towards their goal.
So what do you deserve?
Do you whole-heartedly believe that you deserve success – no matter how you define it: a large salary, a corner office, or a healthy work-life balance. Is there even a glimmer of doubt that you are good enough, deserving enough, to be the head of that non-profit you have admired?
Or do you just work hard and believe that you will be given what you deserve – that it is up to the universe to decide what value your work has and thus how successful you will be.
Have you considered that perhaps the universe doesn’t get to make these decisions, perhaps, just perhaps, you do? What do you deserve?
