Excessive-profile achievements are sometimes introduced as the last word markers of success. Awards, titles and public recognition are speculated to validate years of effort, however the emotional price of chasing them isn’t mentioned. Sitar maestro Anoushka Shankar just lately spoke candidly about this rigidity, explaining why she selected to skip the 68th annual Grammy Awards regardless of receiving two nominations. Taking to Instagram, she wrote, “It’s Grammy day right now! I’m proud to be twice nominated – for my album Chapter III: We Return to Mild and for Dawn, the lead tune from the album.” But, alongside this delight, she acknowledged the emotional toll that accompanies main award occasions. “On the similar time, it feels actually good NOT to be in LA getting sucked into the whirlwind of interlocking pleasure and stress that comes with main awards occasions.”
As a substitute of attending the ceremony, Anoushka selected to stay in India, aligning her resolution together with her private values. “This 12 months, I made a acutely aware resolution to not go and to be on the highway in India through the ceremony. I wished to apply what I preach, which is that awards don’t matter just like the precise connection taking part in music for folks affords us as artists.” She additionally brazenly addressed the mental health impact of the method surrounding such occasions, writing, “I wished to handle my psychological well being too – and I’ve to say, generally the method of spending actually 1000’s of {dollars} on the privilege of flying, attending, advertising and getting sucked in to the machine, vastly anxious about outfits and pink carpets, beginning to hope to win after which not successful (many times!) can take a toll.”
Selecting presence over status, Anoushka described her time in India as grounding and significant. “Being right here in India, the place Chapter III actually started, working and laughing and taking part in with my unimaginable band and crew, is the stuff of actuality, of my TRUEST inventive life,” she wrote, whereas wishing “luck and like to everybody nominated tonight.”
This angle echoes a broader dialog round validation and self-worth—one which many individuals outdoors inventive fields can even relate to. Lengthy earlier than this, actor Aamir Khan had publicly mentioned how his views on awards had advanced. Early in his profession, he admitted, “On the subject of awards, it’s the jury who decides it, and no matter they determine, it’s their prerogative. And each actor goals to win awards, I additionally try for that, so maybe sooner or later I may additionally win an award.” He added, “However sure, awards do act as a supply of encouragement, it evokes you to do higher work, you’re feeling revered.”
Over time, his stance hardened. Whereas selling Dangal, he said, “Industrial movie awards are of no worth to me. For me, Dangal has already obtained its greatest award, which is the love of the viewers.” When requested if his view would possibly change, he replied, “I don’t assume so it’ll ever change.”
Collectively, these reflections elevate bigger questions on ambition, recognition and psychological well being.
However why do exterior markers of success typically carry such a excessive psychological price?
Counselling psychologist Athul Raj tells indianexpress.com, “Exterior markers of success are public, comparative and unstable. Awards and recognition put folks in fixed comparability, which prompts menace programs within the mind—worry of dropping standing, relevance, or belonging. Even assured, achieved people aren’t immune, as a result of the stress isn’t about talent; it’s about identification. When success turns into one thing that have to be repeatedly confirmed, the nervous system stays on alert.”
He continues, “Add visibility, judgment, social media amplification and expectations from household or business, and achievement stops being nourishing. It turns into performative. In Indian contexts, the place success is commonly tied to household delight and ethical price, the associated fee is even better. You’re not simply succeeding for your self – you’re carrying symbolic weight.”
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Distinguishing between wholesome ambition and achievement-driven stress
Wholesome ambition feels expansive; achievement-driven stress feels constrictive. Raj notes that one is pushed by curiosity and which means, the opposite by worry — of falling behind, disappointing others, or turning into irrelevant. “A key marker is how the physique responds. With wholesome ambition, effort is tiring however restorative. With dangerous stress, there may be continual exhaustion, irritability, sleep disruption and a shrinking sense of self outdoors work.”
“One other sign is rigidity,” states Raj, including that when relaxation looks like failure, when outcomes matter greater than studying, when self-worth rises and falls with outcomes, ambition has crossed into menace mode. Psychological well being declines not as a result of targets are excessive, however as a result of the inside price is silently ignored.
