What is success? And how is it measured? Is success achieved by attaining wealth, status, happiness, contentment? As far as I can tell, success is defined differently for everyone.
I have worked in an office with wealthy attorneys whose lives are consumed by their work. They rush around all day, can't seem to ever get through that ever growing pile of papers on their desks, and generally don't seem happy. Yes, these are generalizations and there are always exceptions, but this was the most common lifestyle of the attorneys that I worked for. These attorneys are often viewed as "successful" because of their wealth and status. They have studied and labored to achieve their positions, giving themselves a sense of accomplishment.
I also know a woman whose job is to be a "full-time mom." In the morning, while everyone rushes to work, she helps her kids get ready for school, happy to be able to watch them grow up. During the day, she paints because that is her passion. Her work is beautiful because as you look at it, you can feel the joy that she had when she created it. In the afternoons she picks up her children and takes them to their various after-school activities. She watches them with pride and supports them with her love. Then she comes home to make dinner for her family because they value sharing this meal together. When she is finally ready to go to sleep at night, she still has a smile of contentment on her face because she felt that her day was successful. She has put her heart into what she does and that gives her a sense of accomplishment.
The attorneys and the mother are all successful, just in different ways. Maybe success is just being happy with where you are and what you do. Maybe success is achieving that goal, that dream of what you've always wanted to be, what you've always wanted to do. I suppose that success is always a matter of opinion and so cannot be simply defined.
Personally, I've been contemplating success because I am discovering what it means to me. It's easy to just view success in the ways that your parents (or anyone with as great of influence)view success. In my family, success was defined as graduating from college and bringing in a considerable income (you know, the typical "American-Dream" thing). But one day I realized that my view of success wasn't what it was for my parents. It wasn't easy for me to make the decision not to finish college and instead to pursue the mediocre, but happier, life that I desired. This doesn't make sense to most people because of the way society views success. Most people don't agree with success taking "lesser" forms. I understand, without question, that everyone must work for a living, as has always been the way. But "work" can also be defined as so many different things. For the attorneys, work means constant mental labor, whereas work for the mother takes the labor of the heart. Equal but different.
I want to be successful, as I am certain that everyone does, according to their personal view of success. My idea of success? It is to be happy, to be content, to be proud of what you do day-in and day-out, and to feel that sense of accomplishment that need not be recognized by anyone other than onesself. I have decided that I need to be successful according to this view. So I will do just that. I will allow my creativity to direct my ambitions in my pursuit of success. I will no longer be subject to other people's ideas of success because it is time for me to be true to myself. I am not sad that I will not be working for the law firm anymore because I see this as my opportunity to follow my passions and that will lead me to my success.
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