“The accomplishment of an aim or purpose” – Oxford languages
Success is a concept where everyone has the opportunity to define it differently. The beauty of the human race is that no one person is the same and therefore it is most likely that everyone’s definition of success is different.
Due to a lack of knowledge, people make assumptions, they create opinions, and these opinions are only based on their thoughts, their experiences, and when all they have in their head is certain voices, their perspective is very skewed with no empathetic understanding to others journey.
It is important to remember this as you travel on your journey, that no one elses definition of success is the same as yours. For some, it may be internal, for others, it may be external. The most important thing is to know within yourself what success is in your life.
So, What is success for you?
The only person that can answer that question for you, is you. No one else should determine what you consider to be successful. Success can only truly be defined in relation to what you have personally set out to achieve. And to understand what you have set out to achieve, it is critical to know your purpose.
In a results driven world, where numbers, scores, and status are so often used as the measurement for success, without purpose, these are all you really have to assess your achievement. When you have a higher purpose, what is seen on the surface to the public eye becomes irrelevant to the journey you are on.
Here’s a little story:
I once took a class at University where in my final exam I got a score of 38/100. After initial disappointment, I realized something, that my definition of success was not about the score that I had gotten, it was actually about all that I had learned. In that class, I started with a knowledge base of near zero, whereas most my classmates started with a knowledge base of over 50, so it is only understandable that when the professor came to mark our final exam, my knowledge was considerably lower than everyone elses. So I wrote an email and said this, “if you are going to grade me on what I have achieved, I have failed, but if you are going to grade me on what I have learned, then I have passed”. The professor never responded to that email….but I passed the class.
As I’ve continued to grow in this life, this has been a poignant moment to reflect upon and show me that my definition of success is about what I learn and the journey that I am on, rather than the results I achieve.
Success is the person I am becoming through the journey that I am on.
I have discovered my purpose and I follow that everyday. It reflects in my actions, in my decisions, and therefore it allows me to measure my own success and no one else.
I encourage you, whatever industry you are in, whatever path you are on, to clearly define your purpose for your life, your reason for being, to enable you to accurately measure success in your life. Don’t let society define it for you.
Find your purpose and you’ll find your way
Your family, friends, colleagues, teammates, classmates, they all view the world in a different way to you. Individual perspectives and opinions create diversity and without this diversity, our world would be one sided and boring. No this isn’t about conflict, this is about each individual having something to believe in, something to live for through what they see. This is about people taking a step back before making judgement and looking at someones situation from a different lens to your own; perspective taking. It’s about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for a second and allowing them to be them, and believe in what they believe.
or difference, but with a little empathy, we all have the ability to step back and just respect what others see and let them embrace their perspective. With this empathetic understanding of others opinions, we will still have our diverse world with individual perspectives, however embracing this difference instead of creating conflict will lead to a more peaceful world.