The height of your success is the most dangerous place to be. That’s when your ego gets too big and you can’t see the edge of the cliff you’re about to fall off of. You get carried away by your achievements and you forget to stay humble and to keep on learning. The height of your success can become the beginning of the end.
The downward spiral of bad decisions will lead you very far from the top of the mountain you were just on, if you don’t rein yourself in. It’s your most vulnerable time. You’re weak emotionally and susceptible to lots of bad choices. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Many of us envision success as a linear line going neatly upwards with constant PRs along the way
Most of the time it’s more like this, due to life events, injuries, personal issues, etc
How you handle success is just as important as how you handle failure. If you are prone to going overboard at the height of your success, then learn what you need to do to prevent the downward spiral by having a plan for some other activities to fill your time and help you shift focus on something else you can enjoy.
It’s so incredibly tempting to keep on pushing yourself when you are high on success. But fact is, you are not invincible and you are not immune from injury which is exactly what will happen if you keep on pushing forward aimlessly.
Reality check. Progress is not always linear, as the graph above shows. Many times you need to scale back and let your body rest and recover before making it work really hard again. So you can still make upwards progress but be mentally prepared for it to be more zig-zagged then you might desire. True success is having a plan, sticking to it, not letting anything discourage you and then learning how to pull back when necessary.
Stay humble, keep on learning, enjoy your talent and don’t ever take it for granted. From time to time, remind yourself how much has already been accomplished and be thankful.