“Success” is a word that we start hearing since the early years of our lives. It is not novel to anyone but when I thought of writing about Abundance Tribe's Biweekly Question, I felt like I have to write about an alien concept.
All of us want to be successful in our lives. Our loved ones want to see us as a successful person. We find a lot of motivational speakers teaching us the methods of attaining success. The self help books are there to provide us the guide towards our desired destinations. Tons of quotes can be found across the media and social media to ponder light on the path of success. However, the prime question is what actually the success is!
Most of the time we are given the examples of those who have attained a particular position in a profession or someone who has outperformed in academics or business or someone who has acquired so much wealth and fame. By creating these role models, the world gives us the standards for success against which we can evaluate our progress and position. @celestialcow stated in her post what does success look like to me?... its a transient feeling
I believe most people value success by defining it against the role models around them that they see. And if they see other people being successful for x y z reason they will strive for that.
My stance on success is that the very idea of success falls to ground when we have some outward standards to meet. Success is not a materialistic thing that can be calculated or measured. Neither, it is the accumulation of wealth, fame or any other commodity .
Success is a subjective feeling and cannot have any objective definition. We may think of someone as successful but the person himself may be extremely dissatisfied. If success was related to wealth or fame, we won't witness suicide being committed by the rich and famous.
Success may mean to attain what matters the most, but the irony is what we think matters to us the most keeps on changing. What matters to me the most today may become meaningless or worthless only after a very short period of time. For instance, I wanted to attain good grade and I worked for them. I got good position finally, but then what?? I was successful but the success lost its meaning afterward. I had other endeavors to accomplish. That piece of achievement gave a very short-lived moments of happiness. We have goals one after the other that keep us moving and growing but success doesn't only mean to progress. Instead, it also means to have a concrete understanding of “why” you are doing what you are doing.
Success is a subjective feeling of fulfillment. We can have a lot of material and yet we may not be fulfilled. We can have very little in terms of material, yet there may be a profound feeling of fulfillment. It can only be attained when we learn to see the core of ourselves. Instead of going on in the race of wealth and fame the world has put us in, success means to be able to sit aside and be able to find the unique purpose of our lives. There is something unique inside us that we are born to do. The discovery of that unique purpose of our lives is the success.
To me, the ideal version of success is when your heart and brain are in solidarity and peace. The brain is not effected by the conflict between the worldly standards and the cordial desires. And the heart doesn't feel saddened by the apparent losses. Instead, both of them work in the same direction without any distraction regardless of how the world evaluate our position. Success is the state of self- actualization where you know who you are and why you are
Now, there comes the question how this ideal version can be attained. Honestly speaking, I have no straight answer, and I haven't achieved it so far. It is quite difficult to free ourselves of the standards of the world that have been inculcated in us through out our lives. However, it is not impossible either.
Introspection can be the first step towards gaining the self-awareness. Evaluating our actions and intentions regularly help us learn what and why we want. Once we start understanding our actions, we can go on finding the reason behind our deeds. Once we figure out the purpose of our lives as an individual , we can go on attaining it. Once we understand the truth of our very being, we can go on living it.