Far too often as I channel surf, go on the web, or scroll through my social media, do I see how people measure success. The majority of the time I see it as making a lot of money, getting that beach body that everyone is jealous of, becoming famous, or things along those lines. Rarely do I see people say “today I made a new friend or I scored a goal today” as a measure of success.
Why is this though? Why is it that a large portion of how we measure success deals with materialistic possessions or self absorbed goals? I’m not saying someone who worked very hard for their beach body should be ashamed, rather I am saying how come that is such a widespread, high up goal among people?
To me, success is a measure of personal growth. Success can be measured in months and years of hard work or it can measured in a day. Let’s take an example of a baby for instance, each day is a success for them. As they go from crawling to walking, from gibberish to speaking actual words, to even going to the bathroom by themselves, a baby doesn’t see success as being famous but rather, as accepting and defying the challenges ahead of them day to day.
This mentality doesn’t need to stop when you’re a baby however, you can take it and apply it to your life everyday as you grow older. Nobody should base how successful they are off someone else, because then who's really successful? If you succeed in the goals of another individual, do you really consider yourself successful?
It’s like the old story portrayed in so many kid shows, Dad has son, Dad wants son to play his sport that he once played and he pushes the son to be successful, yet the son would rather do something else. Eventually the climax shows the father having accepted his son’s true passion and the son embracing it. While it may not be so fairytale-esque in reality, nonetheless the message is there. Success is subjective to however you make it. Measure success with your passions and not what others expectations for you are.
Whether you measure success as making a lot of money, having a family, or becoming a Pokemon Master, let success be what you make it and not what you see so often on television or social media. Don't knock the little things either, making a new friend or getting a good grade on a paper are great ways to motivate yourself that you are successful.
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is moving from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” Don’t let failure knock you down, everyone gets cuts and scrapes. When you were a kid, if you had never got up after you fell down and got a cut you wouldn't be who you are today. Falling is the easy part, it’s getting up that really shows your true colors.
In a world where we value success so highly and we associate it with few goals is just wrong. A poor person on the street is not a failure, rather they just haven’t gotten up yet. Likewise, a person who is scared of heights can stay on the ground forever and do well, but it is those who climb the ladder anyway to see the view that know what they’re missing.
Don’t let anyone say you are a failure, because sometimes it takes a little longer to climb the ladder for the view.
But the view is worth it.
