Thursday, July 31, 2014

Success in my terms!

The very first thought that crossed my mind when I read the topic was: Success! What actually is Success? Isn't it a relative term? We generally measure success in the following dimensions: Money, Fame, Excellence, Happiness etc. People who become rich, People who excel in profession, People who manage their talents well, and People who always smile are the ones who generally are perceived to be successful.


Having stated all that, measurement of success certainly depends on the context.
For example, if we take Indian culture into consideration, we will have new definitions of success. In a typical high class Indian society, success majorly is evaluated in terms of wealth and power, while in a middle class Indian society, success is measured in terms of proficiency in career or business. But in the most prominent lower class Indian society, success is just to survive; it is just to manage two times food; it is to wear new clothes once in a year.


In the landscape of life, we face certain unavoidable trade-offs.
We rightly aspire to fight back against odds and find the meaning in our lives. But due to excess social conditioning we develop certain stereotypes.
Success = f (wealth, fame, career, context)
Looking success only in wealth, excellent career or fame is not at all correct according to me.

I believe, Success is outplaying yourself every time you find a chance.
For me, definition of success changes with stages of life. When I was in Standard X, success for me was to be the Class Monitor thrice in a streak, while when I was graduating, success was in to be the best over-all student of the college.
At present, Success for me is to live every day chasing my dreams. I reward myself as successful if I manage to take that step toward my goal every day. For me success is not the results, but the effort in the due course. Very interestingly, success is in over-coming your own short-comings and bettering your own skills. In simpler terms, When I wake up at 07 a.m. (even when I am damn sleepy) and go for some health exercises, When I attend classes with full enthusiasm and attention, When in breaks instead of killing time I follow up with my committee members and When I am back after college I spend time honing my skills, learning new stuff, I find myself successful.


Success is in small things.
I firmly believe, success lies in small things. Living the day according to your plan, lending a helping hand to the needy, having a passionate ambitious life and sharing smiles wherever we go are the perfect components of a successful life. In an ideal world, success and happiness should be completely overlapped. Aligning our plans such that accomplishment will make us both happy and successful is what we should aspire for. But due to external pressures and social conditioning we tend to stereotype success with widely accepted parameters.
In the end, it’s our life. Once we start finding happiness and success together, a strange delicious calm comes over.

Yes I aspire to be famous, Yes I adore excelling in what I do, Yes I find satisfaction in outplaying myself, Yes I want to be successful!!

For the time is limited and we only live once.