Today during study hall I had a conversation that really stuck with me. Out of absentmindedness I read a poster on the wall out loud that said, "There is no elevator to success. There is only the stairs." One of my friends, let's call him N, immediately piped up and said "that's not true. What about winning the lottery?" My other friend J agreed with me that wealth is hardly a definite measure of success. And N, in his typical stubborn fashion, refuted "Well what is success then?" J and I looked at each other absolutely mystified for a minute. But we eventually came to the conclusion that success is basically a happy and fulfilling life. So I was just wondering, what does success mean to all of you? In the financial sense or otherwise.
I would also think it means a happy and fulfilling life. However, I also think that different people will have both different ideas of what it means and different ideas of what constitutes a 'happy and fulfilling life'. For some people (myself included) that would include a financial component, for others it will not. Note that among those who include a financial component, the amount of money will likely vary. Todd
To me, success is actually being able to do something meaningful with my life; not to just slog along every day doing the same damn thing that will never serve to better my life or the lives of those around me. I have yet to find that success, unfortunately. :dry:
Success for me would be having a job I love going to, enough money to pay my bills, and generally living a good life as a good person.
Success for me is enjoying my life. In my case that means people enjoying music I write but....whatever makes you happy :3
I think having fulfilment and a fulfilled life is being happy and so on, but to me success is to have a well paying job with a nice house and other more materialistic things.
Success to me means that you've reached your goals, be it in the workplace, financially or personally.
Prior to coming out to myself, my definition of success was almost exclusive about financial position. Since coming out, I have evolved massively and now believe success is about personal satisfaction with ones self, contentment and happiness. Financial well being is one aspect, but only a small part. Become personally satisfied is more about achieving your full potential in life as a person.
Success is as much internal (probably more), than it is external. Simply put it is not so much a solid point on the map, but rather a point where you yourself are personally satisfied, decently well of, and simply content with where you are and where you're going. It's super subjective to each person, fluctuates over time, and isn't a really constant thing. But I believe very much achievable.
To me it's a synonym with awareness of yourself and your surroundings. If you have that then you can take action to change yourself or your surroundings. The biggest failures in life don't come from failing to make a change but from failing to see the things as they truly are.
I'd hesitate to call a person a success or failure, because those are arbitrary judgements based on what I think they should be. Our ideas of success are profoundly influenced by culture. The basic American version of success is being white, male, masculine, cis, straight, not disabled, Christian, middle/upper class, and monogamous, and working a lot. This reserves success for those in power, and further oppresses those already oppressed. It's rigging the definition of success to make minorities not fit into it. So I prefer to talk about success on a personal level, and not pass judgement. I consider someone a success if they consider themself a success. I consider myself a success because I'm trying hard to develop as a person (and I happen to be succeeding) and because I consider myself a good person. These are just my personal values. Keep in mind how a definition of success includes and excludes minorities. Also, I noticed with the elevator and stairs to success thing that it's blatantly excluding people who can't use stairs from the definition of success. This is especially alienating for people who can't use stairs, but metaphorically it applies to every kind of disabled person. It's saying that you can't be disabled and successful, and I have a problem with that. I'm not saying disabled people can do everything non-disabled people can. No, we disabled people have a very hard, even impossible time navigating a society that wants to exclude us from everything. We achieve less, and that's absolutely okay. We're only human and we have limitations, and we disabled people have extra limitations. I don't think we need to meet any standard of success to deserve respect, care, and compassion.
If we are talking about success, we are necessarily talking about achieving some goal, right? Funny thing about goals: once you achieve them, then what? And if you fail, the path to having experienced a failure and judging that one is a failure is a short one... Would that we had no grand Goals, would that we could forget about our past "successes" or "failures", if you think about it, both these words are impostors. Would that we could also forget about whether the future holds great successful things for us, that is only a recipe for anxiety... You want to write a book? Then enjoy the action of writing, in the present moment. You want to become a doctor, then live fully in the moment of discovering/learning how the body works and what can go wrong with it, and what can be done about it. To me, a successful person is happy with what he has, loves people and things, and lives fully in the moment...you know...while alive. A successful person knows that the present moment is the only thing that is real.
Success is about working toward and achieving something under your own power. It's not really about the result or just having good things. If you end up comfortably weathy (or whatever) but didn't work to get it, then that's not success. Personal anecdote: Coming to Japan. I've wanted to experience to Japan since I was a kid. I made a plan when I was in high school to become a teacher and live here. I had people tell me all the time, "why don't you just go for two weeks?", "what if you hate it?", or in my ex's case, "why don't I just pay for us to go on vacation there?" But it's not about Japan; it's about having a dream, making a plan, and making it reality. Just going on vacation, whether or not I paid for it, wasn't enough. Hating it, didn't matter. It's the process. That's why that saying came about, I think. Because success isn't the destination, it's the process and completion.
Success is living a life worth living. Getting to do the things you want to do, and go the places you wanna go. I'd love to develop the talent necessary to begin working on my projects and try and leave my mark on the world. To me, that'd be success. it's not likely going to happen because I suck, but eh w/e
I dont think hes stubborn, thats just also a success for him. Speaking of 'success' that way is more philosophical than practical, everyone see success differently. Maybe the question that should be asked is what would make a person happy in the long term
