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What Does Victory Look Like For You?

What Does Victory Look Like For You?

Last updated on: January 15, 2017 at 6:45 am by John Beckett

What Does Victory Look Like For You? 2017-01-14T09:44:57-06:00 John Beckett

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My last post discussed the battles we are fighting – some literal, some metaphorical, and some metaphysical. A line I added in one of my final edits said “If we are wise, clever, and determined – and just a bit lucky – we will win.”

What does it mean to win? What does victory look like for you? If this is carrying the military metaphors too far or if you don’t like the dichotomy of winners and losers, what does success look like for you?

More specifically, what does victory or success look like for you over the next four years?

The need to define the terms of victory

An important part of Magic 101 is selecting appropriate targets. Describe your goal as precisely as you can. Big dreams are good, but until you can specify exactly what you want, both your magic and your mundane efforts will be too vague and too dispersed to accomplish anything big.

Defining victory in advance helps avoid mission creep. You know, like when you invade a country to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and you end up taking out a dictator, rewriting their constitution, inspiring terrorists, and keeping troops in the country for years on end? Yeah, like that. Before you start, ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’ll know you’ve accomplished it. Neglecting to define victory leads to endless war.

Defining victory helps avoid unrealistic expectations. Never lose your dreams of living a good life in a peaceful, compassionate, sustainable society, but what can you expect to get done over the next four years? In World War II the Allies demanded unconditional surrender from the Axis powers – it took atomic bombs to achieve it.

Death, greed, fear and hate are not going to surrender.

Defining victory lets us gauge our progress. If we turn our big dreams into actionable plans, we can see how we’re doing. Are we on track? Then let’s stick to the plan. Are we falling behind? Then let’s make adjustments based on what we’ve learned

these things may be best, but they are not realistic goals

What does victory look like for you, personally?

This isn’t about what you want for the world. It’s not what laws you want to see passed or what customs you want see changed. This is all about you – what do YOU need to consider the next four years to be a victory?

A better job, a better house, improved finances? Improved health? Better relationships? Better sex? Deeper spiritual practices? Cultivating a more serene demeanor? Or maybe improving your hexing and cursing skills? This isn’t what you think you want or what you think you’re supposed to want. Deep down, what do you really want? What do you need to be who and what you’re meant to be?

Victory doesn’t always mean bigger-better-more. Sometimes it means holding on to what you’ve already won. Sometimes it means letting go and moving on. Sometimes it means a tactical retreat – withdrawing to a safe space so you can fight again when the odds are more in your favor.

Nobody can answer this question for you. Defining victory by someone else’s standards is a recipe for misery, as I discovered in my 20s and early 30s when I thought I needed to be rich and powerful to be successful.

Your dreams, your goals, your plans, your life: what does victory look like when you look in the mirror?

What does victory look like for your tribe?

By “tribe” I mean your family, friends, and co-religionists – the people who share your values, your goals, and your life. These are people you know and care about, the people whose happiness matters as much as your own. What does victory look like for them?

Now, if you get to define victory your way, so do they. Don’t assume they all want the same things, or the same things as you. Don’t assume you know what they need. That means you have to actually talk to them about what it would mean to be successful in the coming environment.

A tribe is an entity of its own, not just a collection of individuals. You get as much of a voice in defining victory for the tribe as a whole as everyone else. What does the tribe need to be healthy, to continue its traditions, and to fulfill its mission?

Set the terms for victory based on results, not on methods. Over the coming four years, it is likely that many of the avenues for victory we’ve become accustomed to will be blocked. Too often we spend tremendous amounts of time and energy maintaining a status quo that is more familiar than beneficial. Certainly we should fight to hold onto things that have been good and helpful, but if we lose them, look for different ways to accomplish the same things.

the Old North Bridge – 2013

What does victory look like for the world at large?

Over the next four years you’re going to be inundated with some people telling you the world is falling apart and others telling you it’s the best world that’s ever been. How will you know?

Here’s a hard truth – you don’t know what’s best for the world at large. Neither do I. Neither does anyone else. Your input matters, but so does the input of 7 billion other people. So does the input of 8 million other species. So does the input of countless mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans. These non-human persons have a hard time expressing their concerns to us – that doesn’t make those concerns any less valid.

The best we can hope for is sovereignty – the freedom of every living person (human and non-human) to rule their own lives as they see fit. This is neither cultural relativism nor libertarianism. Some beliefs, policies, and actions are clearly harmful to individuals and communities. Some encroach on the sovereignty of others. Some neglect our obligations to our communities and to other beings. These must be opposed. Many are so complicated it’s hard to tell who they help and who they harm. These must be evaluated carefully.

What does improved sovereignty look like? To me, it starts with less environmental desecration, less fundamentalism and terrorism, and less empire. If we could say we had less of all that that in early 2021 when compared to early 2017 I’d consider it a victory.

What about you?

What will it take to achieve victory?

My strong suggestion is that you spend several sessions in meditation on these questions – they’re that important.

Once you have an idea of what victory looks like, you can start making plans to achieve it. What can you do by yourself? Where do you need the assistance of your tribe? Where do you need the assistance of allies from other tribes, and from other realms? Do you have those alliances? If not, how can you start forming them? What do you have to offer to persuade them to help you? Reciprocity make the world go around…

The next four years will be challenging – as will the four years after that, and the four years after that, and on and on. We will not achieve everything we want, or even everything we think we need. But If we are wise, clever, and determined – and just a bit lucky – we will win.

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The Call of the Morrigan is Louder and More Urgent

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January 18, 2017 The Inauguration: Maintain the Sovereignty of Your Mind

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