The egocentric culture that surrounds us has changed our inherent nature as humans. Being a freshman in college, often times I get asked the questions of "what are you majoring in?" and "what do you want to do with that after you graduate?" I constantly find myself frustrated with the fact that I can never find an honest answer. Why is it so hard to choose what I want to do with my life? We live in a society that has increased expectations of teenagers and children at a younger and younger age. As we all know, these children are the future of the world to come. I guess that means we should turn them into robots in the meantime. Now in order to prevent the next "Terminator" movie from actually occurring, we must make a change to this phenomenon. It will start with the definition of success. Success has shifted to an external object we obtain rather than an internal value we recognize.
We have shifted away from our passions and moved towards bragging rights. Our mindsets have changed completely. We no longer care about how much we love a particular activity, but rather what others think of us and how much it affects our image. It is very easy to dismiss what is happening around us, but it takes a zeal for something greater to acknowledge the problem. The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that there is one. With all of the materialism surrounding us, it is almost as if success couldn’t breathe without external accomplishments. It easy to say that most people would determine success by wealth, accomplishments, college degrees, careers, etc. Society tends to focus on what makes the individual better, but I would like to say that success is actually how the individual betters society.
I fell into this trap very early in my life. Deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up hampered my life to the point where I was spending hours researching “successful” careers or colleges that I should attend for that career. I like to think this trap is analogous with trying to get out of a room with the lights turned off. You know there is a door there and there is only one way out. You just have to search and find this exit and maybe run into a few things along the way. In a similar way, I could never find an answer to why I struggled with making a huge life decision such as career path or what college to attend. I found myself running into wall after wall and eventually came to a realization. There was no door in this room. No, I am just kidding. I figured out that everything I did or wanted to be was to improve my image so that others could see me as “successful.” Why is my success determined by what others think? That is not what success truly is. Success is finding what we love and thirsting for ways we can help others by doing what we love.
When I came face to face with the truth right in front of me it was almost as if somebody had turned the lights on in my life. I love the model “strive for greatness,” but the reason we are striving for greatness might be a little different for some. I finally realized that throughout my life I had always desired doing things that made me most happy, but it was never enough for me. The most difficult part was trying to satisfy myself when I was innately unfulfilled. I finally hit a brick wall and realized that I will never be completely happy if I keep focusing on myself. It was at this moment that I understood I should not be striving to do my will, but the will of my creator. A huge thump on the head…duh! Why would I not trust the creator of all things good and beautiful with my desires for what is good and beautiful? Eureka!
I kept searching for what I wanted to do and always left God out of that picture. God was the author of this painting and I was just his image to paint. It is very easy to get caught up with the ambiance of what our culture expects of us, but if we care about perfecting our desires for happiness we must turn to our vocation. Vocation comes from a Latin word meaning “a calling or summoning.” We all have particular things that we are drawn to and we can only find them through God. We must trust in the Lord when it comes to completing our desires for happiness because God is complete happiness. We do not need to grab success out of the air and make it a part of us because first of all that would look a little strange. Once I started to focus on what God wanted for me, everything else began to fall into place. That is truly what we are called to search for…our calling and once we find it then we are successful.
The hard thing to realize is that the nature of success has been completely blown out of proportion and it is largely due to the times we live in. It is very easy to find an accomplishment when we look at a painting, but what is the painting without each and every brushstroke that formed this painting? Without the brush strokes, the image would not exist. Without our creator, we would not exist. Therefore, we cannot have any accomplishment or success without acknowledging that it was only possible through God.
After acknowledging that my success comes from God I know that I should at least give Him thanks in return. The way that I do this is by using the life that he has blessed me with and glorifying his will. The turning point in my life was when I decided to actually apply this. I began to truly search for my vocation and not just anything superficial that made me temporarily happy. It is so easy to get caught up and distracted nowadays, but we must stay focused and realize that the ultimate success comes from within. We should use the gifts and talents that God has blessed us with and glorifying our lives with them through our vocations. So these are my keys to success. First, search for God’s will for you to help you find your vocation. Second, once you find your vocation, apply it in a way that glorifies the Lord. Third, do all things with selfless love to better the kingdom of Heaven and those around you. By doing all of these things, I can personally attest that you will be one of the most successful people in the world.
