What Is Success

Title:
What Is Success?

Word Count:
572

Summary:
I recently read a thread in a forum in which somebody was dismissive of other people who wrote about success. His argument was that they wrote about success but were not successful themselves.

I made no comment, just smiled as others were diving in to dismiss what was nothing more than a self glorifying remark. To make such a statement he must have had a very narrow minded view of success, presumably relating success to massive wealth. Even on such a narrow, and plainly s...


Keywords:
success,achieve success,what is success,definition of success,successful,how to be a success,achieve


Article Body:
I recently read a thread in a forum in which somebody was dismissive of other people who wrote about success. His argument was that they wrote about success but were not successful themselves.

I made no comment, just smiled as others were diving in to dismiss what was nothing more than a self glorifying remark. To make such a statement he must have had a very narrow minded view of success, presumably relating success to massive wealth. Even on such a narrow, and plainly silly, definition, how on earth could he know whether others who wrote about success had been successful or not? Clearly, he could not.

With that statement he had insulted just about every person on the planet who could write. Success is a very personal and individual achievement. You could examine the life of any other person, and pinpoint successes in their lives; and if they could write, they could write about success. Those successes may be beyond the vision of somebody who is arrogant and judges people by their level of conspicuous wealth. However, those little successes in that person's life may be of relative importance to that person, whether a child, teenager or adult, and also to their family and friends.

Success is always relative, and can relate to just about any aspect of human existence. Nobody should just be dismissed as unsuccessful by others. An individual can, of course, be unsuccessful in a particular endeavour; even so, if they set out on that endeavour at all, then they are more "successful" than somebody who never found the impetus to do so, even though they want to.

It is even possible to "succeed" and "fail" at the same time. Taking an example from my own life, in my late teens I wrote my first two novels. I felt very satisfied, and considered the second novel at least a success, even though I could not find a publisher and never made a penny from it. As a novelist, I was a failure; yet I felt success.

When considering your own success it is worth bearing in mind a dictionary definition, just to help keep it in perspective: success is "An event that accomplishes its intended purpose." That is really all it is; it does not have to be about conspicuous wealth, nor does it have to be highly public.

The most obvious successes are, of course, visible in public and can often be accompanied by conspicuous wealth. However, you will usually find those successes have been preceded by a lot of smaller and less obvious successes, and failures as well, all of which were essential to that ultimate and big success that everyone sees today.

A famous and successful musician, for example, may have had their first success in mastering their first tune on a guitar. It was an essential success, but small and insignificant at the time. That same musician may have had their first public performance, when everything went wrong and the audience booed, and been dismissed by those present as a failure. Yet, it was an important step to their ultimate success.

Long term success in anything depends on a series of steps, each of which has to be taken to get to the ultimate destination. Each step can be its own little success, or sometimes a failure that sparks the greater effort that leads to ultimate success. Each is as important as the other.

BONUS : Title:
What is success, anyway?

Word Count:
555

Summary:
Virtually everyone strives for success, but few people have an idea of what they are struggling to attain. Oftentimes, success is confused with wealth, while other people seek a life of complete leisure, only to be disappointed with either outcome.

In this article, Mr. Samans discusses the nature of success and how one might choose to pursue it.


Keywords:
Success Wealth Leisure Time


Article Body:
Our society often makes the mistake of equating success with wealth. It’s not a surprise that we do this. After all, wealth has the advantage of being measurable. When we can measure something, we can rate how we’re doing versus everyone else. We love to compete with each other.

But aside from providing us with a handy way to “keep up with the Jones’,” what does the equation of success with wealth really do? It’s commonly accepted that money doesn’t buy happiness. If someone is wealthy and unhappy, is he or she successful? Of course not!

Success is less about money than it is about worth. A successful person is one who looks at what he or she contributes and is satisfied with what he or she sees. Success is recognition, even if only internal (because in the end, you’re the only one who’s completely a part of your life). If you’re happy, then you’ve succeeded.

Unfortunately, while American traditions hold that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right, happiness itself is far from guaranteed. Indeed, the pursuit of happiness can be a frustrating battle of competing priorities, high prices, and lost time. These very real costs give us the illusion that our unhappiness is caused by what we have spent along the way, to which we readily conclude that if we had fewer responsibilities, lower expenses, and more time, we would be happy. We devote much of our lives to attaining a level of financial independence at which we can at last retire and enjoy our hard-earned free time.

Yet, do you know that the average life expectancy of a retiree who doesn’t take up a new challenge to occupy his or her time is about five years? Humans thrive on stimulation. We can’t go from overwork to perpetual vacation. We get bored, and we die.

The secret to real happiness, therefore, is neither to have money nor to accumulate money for the future. Both of these may be useful (and up to a point, they’re perfectly sensible), but it’s much more important that you identify what it is that you like to do with your time than to find ways to free it up sooner.

If you don’t know what you want to do – and especially if you’re sure that whatever it is, it’s not what you’re doing now – you probably can’t just quit, but you can start to make changes that will make you happier. Start looking for other options. Sign up for some adult education classes at a community college, the kind that have a flat fee and meet once a week for a few weeks. Study languages, maybe. Or art. Or cooking. Try everything you can. You’ll know what you like when you find it.

And once you do find it, see how you can incorporate it into your life. We spend most of our lives sleeping or at work, and odds are that you need your sleep. You probably need to work to live, but you might as well be working at a job that you enjoy. Then you’ll be on the road to happiness. That’s success.