What is Success? Who decides it? Does it have to come
from __________, or can it be a self-proposition?
Everyone wants to be successful. But what does it really mean
and whose definition are we going by to reach this status? One could wander the
world and find a hundred different versions of the "success story". Does it come down to money after
all? Are the homeless plum out of luck? Maybe not.
I guess I don’t believe in the storybook examples given of
success stories. As if these brilliants had any idea beforehand that they would
stumble upon this, come up with that, or create something so timeless. They were
clueless. All they had were some wits, a dash of talent, and a vehicle for these (paints, pencils, fabric, etc.) and the rest is history.
What I cannot understand is how a person can be labeled 1/4 way
through their life. It doesn’t work like that. At 25, Thomas Hardy was nowhere near where he’d be 30 years later. One cannot assume that because one
has done seemingly nothing yet, one never will; similarly, it doesn’t suggest one
has in fact done nothing. We seem to do
so little in a day and yet so much can go on. From exchanges with family or pets to stories read or sights seen; I believe none of it can be taken for
granted. These things cannot be pointed to, per se, at the end of a month, or
the end of a year, even the end of a life…and yet they accumulate, and make up
our life.
The idea of writing Obituaries has always resonated with me on some level.
What makes up a life, and what are the things most worth recording? What if
the person never went to Paris or had a big social life or made any real efforts in
their community? Are they worth less than someone who has?
What is the value of a single individual? We see things always
through comparison and contrasting, and yet what if those things were taken
away?
What if success wasn’t so much about Having or Doing, but simply
Being? What a novel concept to think
that existence itself could prove sufficient. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t
try to push oneself to do more and have more, but being more should be emphasized. It’s an attitude of making the
most of opportunities that present themselves: saying Yes instead of No; pushing
forward when the fear and anxiety beckon us back to safety. It’s so easy to be
tucked away at home, merely observing life from our TV chair or bedroom window.
It is another thing entirely consciously choosing to go out there, and face it
head on.
So what is success? Who defines it? What if I said it doesn't matter. Only you can decide how to live your life, and only you can decide if it was a success or not.
Whatever anyone else says or does, I must be true to myself, just as if gold or emerald or the color purple would say, "Whatever anyone may do or say, I must be an emerald and keep my color." -Marcus Aurelius
