From the author: The article was first published on the site: Lately, I often hear the words “success”, “success”, “achievement” from people around me. The market for psychological services is replete with offers of training for success and personal growth. To be honest, these words have already set my teeth on edge and make me slightly nauseous. Sometimes it seems that the whole world is obsessed with success and efficiency. How can we not get carried away if we live in an era of market and fierce competition? Being, as we know, determines consciousness. Many of us have to sell, promote, attract, achieve, etc., something. Moreover, very often success is determined by financial achievements and the social status that a person has achieved. Just don’t think that I am against wealth and other social achievements. I really like it when I achieve my goals. And having money in my pocket and in my bank account also makes me very happy. And I like people who do something instead of lying on the couch and complaining about life. I am against the idea that the only measure of a good life is social success. And also against the fact that with such an approach life turns into a constant intense “achievement”. Or rather, I’m not against it, everyone chooses for themselves what they think is right. It’s just that such a one-sided approach seems unnatural to me and imposed from the outside. And not even healthy. An obsession with success and achievements often gives rise to a lifestyle similar to the rat race. J.-P. Sartre called this “auto-projection into the future.” This is when a person transfers all his desires to the future, ceasing to live in the present moment. Tying your joy and possible pleasure to the achievement of some goal. But achieving these goals does not bring real pleasure and joy, or it does, but not for long. And then new goals appear and the run continues. Man again projects himself into the future. The vicious circle closes. Life is put off until later. A symptom of this disease is a lack of joy and satisfaction from life. After all, joy and satisfaction are something that can only be felt here and now, and not in the distant future. Moreover, outwardly, life can look quite successful. And the person says to himself and others: “Yes, everything seems to be fine, it’s a sin to complain, but for some reason I’m very tired and I have a feeling that something is missing.” Interestingly, rest does not bring real satisfaction. And it’s also difficult for me to understand what I’m still missing. What else? I can only rest now, and I can only understand what I really want in the present moment. But it’s not easy to stop the skating rink of constantly transferring yourself into the future, which is why it can be so difficult to rejoice, relax, feel present. And sometimes things don’t work out. And then failure is experienced as something shameful. A person feels like a “loser”, a “loser” worthy only of contempt and pity. Healthy living through failure is also an art. In my opinion, such a race for success, an obsession with achievements gives rise to almost half of the neuroses, depression, and anxiety states characteristic of modern man. Konrad Lorenz, a Nobel laureate and researcher of animal behavior, warned back in the last century that such a lifestyle is dangerous for humanity as a biological species, contributing to the emergence of destructive aggression and various mental and physical illnesses. Sometimes it seems to me that the focus on success and achievement is beneficial, and perhaps even deliberately imposed, to increase illusory progress, growth rates and consumption. So that there is simply no time to think about yourself. This is probably my paranoia. Thank God, not everything depends on the environment and the conditions imposed on us. We can choose how we want to live our lives. Sometimes it’s useful to just stop, listen to yourself, look around and ask yourself a few questions: “What am I feeling right now?”, “What do I want right now?”, “Are my goals what I really need, or.