UNITED STATES—How can one define what it means to be a success? I mean, seriously: think about that question for a second. We live in a world where people love to measure success; but its not something tangible. You can’t really measure success, unless we have a global scale where its defined by. In America, it’s known as money.
The more money or assets one has, the higher your level of success appears in the eyes of most people. Does this mean those with money are overly successful? It depends on those who surround you. Those with money are at the top of the tier, those without are at the very bottom. Can a person be successful, yet not have the same wealth as another individual? Absolutely; most people might find the concept abstract, but success is not based on what you do and how much you make, but what steps you took to get to the place that you currently sit in.
In life, there are always two roads that one can take: one that is less traveled (more obstacles, a bit difficult for most) and then there’s that road more commonly traveled (easier obstacles to overcome, less stress as some would call it). In my opinion, anything that’s comes to you without fighting for it, is not a sign of long-term success. That means what’s here today can be gone tomorrow. No one wants that. So how can one achieve success? Ask yourself: what in life do you want? What is that one thing that provides you with a level of FLOW (you do it because you love it, it makes the day move faster, and provides a natural high that nothing else can for you). Once you know what that is, it’s time to implement steps to achieve it. Yep, that’s right. Don’t set unrealistic goals for yourself. People do it time and time again. Baby steps are the keys to getting what you want out of life. If you set a goal that seems almost unattainable, when you fail to achieve it you beat yourself up that much more.
We put lots of pressure on ourselves to accomplish goals we’d like to see come to fruition, and when that doesn’t happen immediately we stress, cry, scream, yell and experience every other emotion you can imagine. It’s good to fail sometimes; failure allows you to re-examine what went wrong and what can be done to fix the problem at hand. It strengthens the mind at the same time. When you think of success, don’t base it on what you observe others doing and what is depicted in movies and television. That is a false lifestyle that many people never obtain. What is seen on television most of the time fails to adequately reflect the real world. Do you think celebrities spend as frivolously as we see time and time again? Well, I guess, to some degree yes; but nothing lasts forever.
The message I want to leave is: look at success as a goal that you wanted to accomplish. If you’ve achieved that goal, you’ve obtained success. It may not be of the monetary value that others expect, but in your eyes you did something that you had to fight to achieve. That is the true essence of success to begin with.
By Trevor Roberts
