Success

Success. The first word that comes to mind when I think about success is subjective. 

What I consider a success differs from what another person believes success is. And yet, we spend so much time comparing our success to others and aspiring to be what we are not, and may never be. 

Throughout my academic years in college, to be successful meant that I worked hard to receive good grades, enjoyed my friendships, and took advantage of my resources. I considered myself successful if I was doing these three things - amongst a few others. There was greater simplicity to it. 

And now that I have graduated I have noticed the weight that the word success holds to each individual, especially myself. To be quite honest, I am still in the process of figuring out exactly what success means to me - or maybe I am realizing that success is an arbitrary made-up notion that fits us into societal molds that we may - but do not have to put ourselves in. 

To one person, success could be making a lot of money and affording the lifestyle that they desire. To another person, success could be waking up in the morning and taking care of their children whom they love and adore. And sometimes, success could be both of those things combined with another. 

Success can simply be getting yourself through the day. It can be eating a nourishing and full plate of food. And it can even be allowing yourself to fall in love again. Success is subjective; my success may never be yours, which is okay. 

So if success is subjective like I am telling myself as I write this, then why do we as a society spend so much of our valuable time comparing our success to the success of others and aspiring to be? 

Now, one might say that it is perfectly normal to use another's success to motivate us and allow us to reach our goals. Which yes, is inherently true in my mind. But what I am specifically referring to is comparing our success to another whom we do not truly desire to have, except for the fact that we think we need to fit society's standards. And to me, this is when we fall down the rabbit hole of success and the impact it has on our lives.  

To deter from this complexity, maybe the answer is to spend more time doing things for ourselves and molding success for the individual. If we spend more time learning about ourselves and what makes us truly happy, working towards our personal goals - yes taking inspiration from others, but doing this because we want to, not that we believe we need to - this then gives us the tools to define success as we may wish. 

There is personal success and there is career success - sometimes these are intertwined and interchangeable, other times not. Learn yourself, know yourself, and create the success that you aspire to have, not for society, but for you.

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