Success and relationality
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If we dedicate our entire lives to the pursuit of ambition, apart from other considerations, we will find our existence both spirituality and emotionally empty. Pursuing ambition is a form of pursuing pleasure, and the pursuit of pleasure alone is the lowest possible benchmark for human life. Pleasure is good, of course, and we all need some. If it's all we pursue, though, we'll find nothing but despair. Use Disorders, in all their forms, are the most extreme symbol or manifestation of a life lived in pursuit of pleasure alone. Those of us at NSC in recovery recognize what a ruinous existence that can be.
The pursuit of pleasure alone does not create a whole, unified person. It creates a temperamental toddler in constant need of new toys that provide stimulation. To become a person we must find ourselves in meaningful relationships. We must be meaningfully related to God, to ourselves, and to other people. When we're properly related in these areas we are given the capacity to discover something to pursue in life that stimulates us, provides us joy, meaning, and purpose, while fostering intimacy in our key relationships.
The thing is, that pursuit may not be something that makes us famous. It may not offer wealth or prestige. It may not "put us on the map".
