Growing up I was subconsciously taught to be hard on myself. It was to the point where I found myself hiding progress reports from my mom because I was afraid that if I received below a B on anything I would get ridiculed horribly. Fast forward to college, I was going through a lot and was not doing good in school. One of my best friends always told me "Taylor, you are being too hard on yourself." I still hear it to this day, and I honestly appreciate the reminder although I may seem annoyed by it at times.
It was not until college when I had to learn that people have their own pace of doing things. Some people get good grades easily, and some have to work hard for it. Some people get jobs automatically after college while some have to wait a few months to even a few years to get a good job. I can give so many examples, but the point is that whatever category you are in, it is completely fine.
The sad truth is that even the person who may seem to have themselves together on the outside will still feel like they do not have themselves together at all. This way of thinking is common but so toxic at the same time. It is toxic because when you keep having that mindset that you always have to do more and more, you will never have that chance to be happy in your life.
The truth is that a person's success will be different from the success of other people, and guess what that is completely okay. It baffles me now that many people define success with having a lot of money, and luxurious things that honestly can bring us more stress. My definition of success is the ability to use the lessons and knowledge learned to help others and to gain new experience.
Success does not have to involve luxurious things, but if that is how you roll then I cannot judge you.
The definition of success will vary among a lot of people but if there is anything I want people to know, it is that your definition of success should only reflect on what you want in life and not what others want for you.
Growing up in an Asian household, I was always expected to be something I knew I was not going to be happy doing. To this day my mom wants me to be a teacher but me knowing what teachers in America go through I knew I couldn't put myself in that position.
At the end of the day, this is the life that you are living and if others are unhappy about it, then so be it as long as you are happy that is what matters. Yes, I am aware that I am breaking my family's expectations of following a career that is expected of me but at the end of the day, I know that whatever I choose to do I will be happy because those were my decisions I choose to make on my own.
