Is your definition of success a fatal mistake?For some, success is defined in terms of the dollar amount on a paycheck. For others, it's the title on their business card. Others may define success in terms of the accolades and awards they have won.
But the problem with how people define success these days is that when they're forced to change it, they can't. Look at the businessmen who have committed suicide because they have lost fortunes. Consider the workers who are fired and then go back to work, armed with a gun.
Extreme cases, sure. Not everyone considers killing themselves or others when their livelihood is threatened. But it does point out that maybe we need to revisit our own definition of success.
Start by completing this definition: "Success to me is...."
After you complete this sentence, then review it and determine if you're on the path to achieving that success. If you were to lose your job or money tomorrow, would your definition of success still be valid? Or, would you consider yourself a failure?
I remember a job where I worked long, stressful hours and often labored for a boss who had mood swings like a freaking roller coaster. It made for a tense situation, to say the least. One day I was talking to a co-worker and the exhaustion was overwhelming. I felt so dissatisfied, frustrated and even angry. Then it hit me: If I died that day, I didn't want the only thing on my tombstone to be "Always met his deadlines."
Ugh, I remember thinking. I wanted my life to account for more than that. It wasn't until months later that I started making some real changes in my life, changes that I know made me much better able to balance my life and devote time and effort to more than my job.
Right now, times are tough and some of us are beginning to panic. But I think it's a golden opportunity to really think about what is important in your life, and weed out the things that don't really matter.
You are the one who must define what success is to you. One thing I know for sure: You are more than a job title, you are worth more than a number on a paycheck and you are more than an award to hang on your wall. Is the destination you have in mind worth the road you must travel? Only you can answer that.
So, how do you define success?
66 comments:
Success to me is.... Is something where you can wake up every morning and be glad you are living another day.
A lot of us hate waking up and going to work, or school. I find those people to be unsuccessful. If it's something you don't feel will benefit you, why go?
I think one can be truly successful, not by how much money one makes, or by how much he/she is educated. I think one is successful if they are happy with themselves. Because once you really think about it, our lives come and go. You want to be happy as long as you can, because you don't know what is coming next.
My grandmother passed away this past Monday, and it has really made me realize how meaningless some things are. For example, material things that make people think they are successful, are very silly to me. Having expensive cars(anything)is not a good way to measure success.
I will consider myself successful when I have my own loving family. This does differ between people, but I know I will be happy raising a family, and at that point I think I can call myself successful.
Success to me is knowing what you want and going after it. In the beginning of the summer of 2006, I thought I was very successful because I landed a job in a good corporation. However now almost 3 years later I do not like going to work. Even though I dislike working in claims, I have learned a lot about life. Never give up in what you want, learn to evaluate things from different angles, negiotate and speak up for something you believe in. Yet I feel I am very successful in academics because I have always strived to be the best. Like one of my goals is to finish my BBA by the time I turn 21 working full-time and going to school full-time. So far so good. So I feel success is sometimes giving up one thing for something else. You cannot be successful in everything you do. You must compromise but you need evaluate what's really important to you.
Success to me is.... having a good relationship with yourself. People come and go in your lives, as do jobs and your personal and professional relationships, but you will always have yourself because you are you. If one is happy with him/herself, success is achieved.
Surely, one can still have goals and destinations they feel they must follow in order to be successful, whether it be defined in monetary terms, personal relationships, or reputations. And, when he/she fails at his/her own goal, he/she feels they failed at success, but that is not true. If the individual can pick him/herself up from this downfall in life (not failure), move forward and still be true to him/herself, then THAT is success!
When I was small, success to me is really like what you mentioned, " the dollar amount on a paycheck" or in terms of social status and reputation. When I grow older and older, I realized that there are so many things in this world cannot be converted in terms of money, such as happiness.
Money cannot replace the happiness and satisfation I get from a volunteer program. Instead of getting money, I may have greater satisfaction from donating to the poor. Money cannot buy me the quality hours spending with family and friends. So, how can money be the measure tool of success?
Success to me is to know the meaning of life, be happy and comfortable with what we are doing. Life with no regret is a successful. Life is short.
Success to me is...is accomplishing my dream job. If I didn't succeed, at some point of that depression I will view myself as a failure but as time goes by, I will have a positive approach to being a failure. I will treat it as I haven't reach my success and I need to try harder.
Now that I mentioned my dream job, I actually want to be my own boss and own a cafe lounge.
I do believe I am working to achieve this goal because education will bring me to a job with decent pay. After a few years of working with firms, (hopefully not too long), with the education I have, I can save up enough money to open the dream cafe I want. I believe it is only a matter of time until I reach there. . .
I do believe paycheck (money) is success, without it life can be hard. This can be because of my background and many people might not agree with me but MONEY is EVERYTHING. Even though I say this but it is still placed as 2nd on my list of "top 5 most important thing in my life category" [family-ship, friendship, money, education/job, and relationship (love life)].
Professor, what about you, how will you place the 5 of these?
I havent figured out what is important to me, so i dont know what success means. Which is pretty problematic, because i go on what other people find important. I have a high GPA, but not because i do it for myself, mostly for my parents. I work my ass of at work, and stress over things, but its not like my employers appreciate the effort. So i guess i really have to start asking that question, what does success mean to me?
SUCCESS FOR ME IS... whatever makes me happy and to wake up in the morning and make sure I will achive that "thing" that makes me smile. Success for me.. is have the passion to do the things you do and to strive for more.
After my Dad's death last December, I wanted to make sure that I will always do whatever makes Jennifer happy, make sure I will say "I love you"to those I care about and to dedicate my self to things or activities that will fulfilled every aspects of my life that I thought at one point that did not have any cure.
Consequently, in order to reach success based on this concept, I need to practice it in all factes of my life: school, work, social life,etc. by not only making my self a happy person but feel the passion to make it happen in order to reach and get higher in life.
Success to me ultimately begins with happiness. Is a CEO who frequently works 80 hour work weeks and can't spend time with his family, a success? If he/she is content with work and enjoys what he does then I would have to no choice but to say yes, however my dreams and aspirations of success are different.
I try to steer clear of materialistic and cynical individuals whose life revolves around money. These people will never find happiness, will chase after money at all costs and will only try to put you down. The purpose of life through my eyes is to have fun, be happy and enjoy everyday as if it were your last. I ultimately look forward to finding a job that I enjoy waking up to go to, where I can make a decent salary and provide for my family.
To me this a tough question? I try to figure this out at least once a week. At one time success to me was trying to make a lot of money so I could travel anywhere I want and to buy a dream house. I was workning as a trader on Wall street and loved the job. However after I got let go, do to down sizing. I now work doing graphics. I felt more success full when i worked as a trader but I thinks its because I loved the job so much.
However now that I have two kids don't think of success as just making money anymore. I now think of success as being the best father I could be to my kids and being the best person and coworker I could be also. Success also means to me being consistant and discipline.
Success to me is....
meeting new people all the time [win/win!], helping others in need, and leaving the past in my heart, living the NOW, and visualizing the future all in each and every breath. Success to me is.... living and being alive [win/win again!]
You can tell that I don't leave much for failure. Foosball helped me a lot with this. It takes practice, dedication, and self discipline to channel hate, anger, and fear into concentration. Much like a skater who falls. She/He must get up off the ice and not ignore the pain/anger/etc. Use that passion and energy to fuel your beliefs and your talents. :) It melts the stress away and helps you do what you do best even better.
The other day I was talknig to someone and they asked me this same question, "What does success mean to me?" It took me a while to think of something and at the end of the conversation I still had not come up with a clear idea of what success ment to me.
I always believed success was defined by what kind of car you drive, the house you live in, and the vacations you take. As I have gotten older and gone through difficult life experiences, I have realized that money isn't everything, and what you have today may be gone tomorrow.
Although I still am working hard to be able to afford the expensive things that make me feel successful, in the end when I am raising my own family, I think that will be the ultimate success.
The other day I was talknig to someone and they asked me this same question, "What does success mean to me?" It took me a while to think of something and at the end of the conversation I still had not come up with a clear idea of what success ment to me.
I always believed success was defined by what kind of car you drive, the house you live in, and the vacations you take. As I have gotten older and gone through difficult life experiences, I have realized that money isn't everything, and what you have today may be gone tomorrow.
Although I still am working hard to be able to afford the expensive things that make me feel successful, in the end when I am raising my own family, I think that will be the ultimate success.
The problem right now is that I can't come up with the complete definition for success. I am worry to admit my ignorance on the topic, but it is true. I don't know how deep the concept can be. I do believe that my definition changes accordingly I get older. Until today, success to me is to be able to finish what I begin, to have a good job that not only helps to pay the bills but also pays the material things we need to buy to have fun with family and friends (recreational money). A job that teaches me and helps me compete and grow as a person in that working environment. Success is also to be happy with yourself and not to disappoint the people surrounding you (family and friends). That is success to me and up to the present day.
I feel like success is a dollar amount. And when I try to talk myself out of it I just say, money doesnt make people happy but money can make you have a better quality of life and that will make me happy and successful.(I know that statement is ignorant) and I feel bad that I know this is the wrong answer but mybe I just need something to put my head in the right place, like a revelation.
I can’t clearly tell what I think my success is and what it really should be. I think people are changing their definition of success on day to day basis. I guess I’m one of the examples of it. It’s just like when you were young, you always dreamed of becoming a doctor, lawyer, a president or even marrying a very rich and handsome guy and etc. But as you get older, your definition of success changes, you become more practical and realistic. You do not want to set your goal so high and unreachable.
In China, people tend to pursue money and reputation that make them feel successful, and I used to think the same. But since studying in the United States for so many years, I don’t think as I used to think. Money is not everything, it can’t buy happiness and satisfactory. Even though I don’t have my definition of success, I know what is important to me, such as health, love and family, those are the things you can never substitute with anything.
Success to me is having a little of everything that makes me happy. I want to have a job that I like, everyday when I get up I don’t want to dread going to work. It’s being able to pay my bills, as well as being able purchase material things that make me happy, taking vacations etc. Success to me is also pursuing my college education beyond getting my bachelors. It’s about having a family, having friends and spending time with family and friends. Success to me is also having that passion, that driving force that pushes me to do things that I want to accomplish in my life time. Lets face it without that, you really don’t accomplish much…
Recently, my aunt passed away in Venezuela, she’s was only 49 years old. More than ever, it made me realized how unpredictable and fragile life is… I also thought about my life, the things I want to accomplish both personally and professionally, the places I want to see etc. So up on till my aunt’s death, I thought of success as having a family, having a good job, and doing the things that makes me happy. Now, my definition of success changed a bit, I still think success for me is having a family, good job, college degree etc. But also to live life every single day like it’s your last. I know life tends to push you back into that routine scheduled way of doing things that you have to do to get by, but shouldn’t each day be about something a little more than scheduled events and routine things? In the end, when I’m old and I look back I want to be to say that I gave myself the very best life I could, and that will be my success. It’s a tough challenge to have it all, but I’m up for it!
Success to me is doing everything in my power to make my dreams come whether it is my career, family, or friends. Yes, having a lot of money and having a closet full of designer clothes and shoes are consider successful. But to me, aside from being rich, success is something you can only achieve when you're trying your best to do something. Being successful at work is being able to do your best to produce quality work, and get the recognition for it. As for friends and family, it is important to be there for them, letting them know that no matter what happends, you can be there for them. Just having those qualities alone would make me a successful person, because what is life without motivation, and the ability to work harder and harder.
Success to me is when you are happy because of your achievements and proud of what you have done. It does not have to do only with material things, it has to do with your life as a whole, what makes you happy and smile. Success is what you feel when you realize your life is complete.
Success to me is basically being happy. I don't have to be rich but I want to be able to make enough money to buy a house and have a nice car. Success to me is also having friends and family being there for you. Success won't be handed to me however. I know that I have to work hard to achieve success. The first step is to get my degree and maybe go on to get my masters as well. Success requires work and dedication so another one of my goals is to work hard to be able to achieve the success.
Success to me is getting what I want. If you are able to attain what you want then you are successful. It doesn't have to be tangible. For example it can be feeling happy everyday and if you are able to feel happy everyday then it is a success. I think success is sort of like a goal or achievement you want.
Sucess to me means being happy. Often many people are not happy with their job but that should not be the only measure of sucess. I think its should do more with family and the things you enjoy. I enjoy spending time with my family. I'm sucessful when I'm doing things I enjoy.
Success to me is something that only I can determine. It is something inside of a person that only they can realize. I've always considered myself an old soul. I was always a little bit older then people my own age. For the simple fact of coming from a divorced family and the mayhem that comes with it. I recently have done some reflecting on my personal life. As I've gotten older I realize more and more that I want to get married and have a family. My idea of success is not the car I drive, what town I live or what name brand I'm wearing. I would consider myself successful if I could own my home in New Paltz, New York and create a family. My family would make me happy and I would determine that as success.
Success to me is having everything necessary to be happy at all stage of my life. As a College student, being successful to me means having a good GPA, enjoying my classes that enrich my soul, great professors that help us become better prepared for the future, and most importantly having my friends around when I need them. In addition, success might also associate itself with a well-paid internship that offered great experience and resume. However, this will soon change in a couple of years after I graduated. I would want to have a stable dream job that would provide satisfaction and a high standard of living. Being able to take a vacation every year to a different country without worrying about money or time. Also, it is not just how much money I make that would measure success but rather happiness and satisfaction about my own life. However, I know without enough money to spend on things that I want would never make me satisfy or happy.
Success to me is doing what you want to do most, and feeling good about it at the end of the day. success to me is being proud of who you are and what you have achieved. Success to me is living a happy and fulfilling life. Success to me is loving and being loved by the most important people in your life, respect and being respected by the others.
I think this is a very valid point. Perhaps when we focus on a specific target or goal as the definition of success we limit the flexibility which would allow us to be declared as "successful". Clearly if we say I want to make at least 100,000$ a year, and we make 99,999.99$, we are technically "unsuccessful", despite clearly achieving the goal. Perhaps as people we need leeway to help bolster our self-esteem and self-value. Without self-esteem and self-value, nothing that we do in this world will have any intrinsic value. I personally define success in many broad ways. I do not believe that I should limit my "success" to any one single discipline. As a human being with basic skills, abilities, and intelligence, I offer too much potential to the world to only work in a single direction. Therefore my definition of success is to make as big a positive impact on the lives of others as I can; But then again, shouldn't that be what we as "the human race" judge to be success? Perhaps that is a point that we have gotten away from recently with individualistic trends? Perhaps we should be more concerned with what value have I provided society with, as opposed to how successful do I judge myself to be.
Success to me is...being able to have a balance life between family and career. Having enough money to spend every month with no worries of being in debt. Being able to buy designer clothes and accessories. Aside from the materialistic side of success having a happy family were you can share every moment of your sad or happy times with is one of the most important part of life to success. Family support are the reasons that lead to someone's success in life. An accomplished person is someone that can manage career life with business life. Achieving the impossibles and has a good reputation where others look up to. Being very accomplished but not having a happy family would not make that person successful. Family, friends and career adds up to success.
Suceess to me is finding what makes you happy in all aspects of your life. When I am happy with myself I feel like I am successful at all I do. I do not measure myself by my job title or how much money I make and it's a good thing since I was recently laid off. Yes it is hard to accept but I try and find the positive and concentrate on how blessed I am in so many other aspects and that makes me happy and I feel successful as a person.
Success to me is...waking up happy and knowing I have something to look forward to everyday.
With that said, so far my road isn't as "successful" as I had planned, but it doesn't mean that it won't change. As long as I work towards making that happen, when it does happen, I know what success feels like and have the things I'll love all around me; whether they be friends, family, or just material things. Everyone sees what important differently, but when I get there, I'll know it.
Success? Hmmmmm. For me the idea of success changes constantly. A series of events can make me feel like a failure, however overcoming a hardship can change that sensation. It can be something as trivial as finally nailing a new snowboarding trick or monumental as getting a job in a company that I wanted to get into (with a great boss ofcourse). Also i believe success cannot be measured just as something positive. I think that success is the equivalent to the outcome of an event. For example, one can think that a person who failed a test was successful at failing. This is certainly not the outcome one intended, but one cannot deny the fact that the failure was a success or obtained. So success to me is the ability learn from and to have a positive perception on the outcomes of situations whether they are positive or negetive.
of course success is not just limited to a number on a paycheck or a prestigious title at a company, but honestly, its a contributing factor to happiness, and being happy is equally important to ones sanity. success, in my opinion, is premeditated. meaning it occurs on the bases of planning and acheiving your goals. i agree, success goes a long way; its not just a reflection on wealth and material. i think inorder to reep the full benefits of success, one must dig deep and search within, developing a sense of solidarity, comfort and acceptance in this world as you did, professor, when you realized life isnt all about your job and meeting your deadline. however, though money cant buy happiness, it's a down payment and as long as you maintain your happiness you are successful.
Success to me is...do what you like and like what your doing. But there are a lot of factors that need to be considered. For example, today you could be against nature and burn down a whole forest and yet tomorrow you could be rated the #1 environmentalist in the world. My definition of success is very broad, it changes from day to day depending on my mood. Having goals can help give u a framework of your success but it can't be followed exactly because of unpredictable events. i wouldnt call myself a failure either because i define failure as a person who does absolutely nothing. i go to school,work and try as hard as i can. Success is differently defined for each person but i don't believe success can make someone miserable.
Success to me is measured by a person's own happiness. And I don't think that success is measured by the dollar amount on a bank statement, but money does play a significant role in getting to that stage. Motivated individuals spend most of their lives in school to receive an education that will help them get that high-paying job so that they can have a more higher standard of living. And once they get to that stage where they don't have to worry about paying bills, or where their next plate of food is coming from I do believe that a person is truly happy.
i used to defibe success by how much money i could make and how much stuff i had. in the end i realized all that meant nothing if i didnt enjpy it in some way. now i define it as being what makes me happy and is as unstressful as possible. if i can live comfortably and not have too much o worry about then i am successful.
Success to me is to be happy and enjoys every working day.
I've been working on my Accounting job for half year, and I've been worrking on my Accounting degree for 2 years because everyone told me that only Accounting can get jobs in the harsh economic situation. A month ago, I decided to change my major. I figure out that accounting is so boring for me, I don't like what I am doing on my job, and I hate it. I don't want my enire life as what I'm doing now. I am so glad that I can explore the Accounting job before I graduate, and I know my success can be greater then facing the number everyday. I want my life to be happy, not only working for money.
Success to me is to go to bed in the night and say to myself "I had a nice day." I find this topic similar to blog that we wrote about vision. There we had goals that we wanted to achieve. I think many people would look at what they achieve from their goals and say "I was successful with my goals that I set myself." There are other goals that I would like to achieve and no matter how small or big they are, if I am able to achieve them I think I could count myself successful. We out to accept that we are human beings and not all goals that we want to achieve will be met and if that is the case than we got to pick ourselves up and get on with life looking forward to enjoying each day ahead.
Hmm, success...When I think of success many meanings come to mind; success in school work, in life, at work, at home, with friends and so on. I always think of success as being happy and content with my life in all that I set out to do, but I never thought of the actual meaning of success for me personally. Still thinking about it, I think in order for me to believe I am successful in life, I must be able to be more than satisfied with my life, such as with my family. My family is number one to me, and if things at home are not happy and cheery then I would not consider myself a successful person no matter how much I may have gained in the other aspects of life. Family, is who I have been with from day one and they have always supported me no matter what decision I take and are always there. If I am not able to meet upto my own exceptions that I have set out for my family then I can't focus on thinking that success is anything else because it would be worthless to share happiness without family. Success, according to me is defined as happiness in one's family that then can translate to other aspects of ones life. My definition of success is not making me miserable it is giving me hope for a better tomorrow. =)
material things such as money are often link with success. although i am not 100% agree with it, the past experience made me believe that it is an important part of life. Money definitely is not everything,but sure you can't live without money. Studies have show that after making 50000 a year, happiness and money go separate way. so Success to me is where i can't wait to start another day. although i don't think money has a lot to do with happiness,I still like to have dream job that would provide satisfaction and a high standard of living. i don't want to live the way where you have to court everything and make sure don't spend too much. i also don;t want to live as a money machine where you just make money but don;t have time to spend it. i want to balance my life and my career. a happy and successful life must have families and friends to share.
Success to me is to become financial independent with families and friends around.
I don’t worry too much regards of losing my job because I know there are always other jobs waiting for me in the market. My next ten years goal is to reach my financial independent. I want to retire my parents before I turn thirty. While I am on my path working toward my goal, there were friends told me that I should slow down and look around the changes happened around me. That happened when I asked them for evaluation. At that moment, I realized I almost loose one of my closest friends.
I am the type of person who loves to make money, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with a pile of money on hand in an empty mansion by myself. Relationship is a big part of my success formula.
My success formula = Relationship x Money
Success to me is to be content with myself and to have work that I care about, and in which I can accomplish the goals I set myself as well as the goals that are expected of me.
First of all I want to note that I did not include money in my initial definition of success. I feel that I am definitely on a great path of achieving success for myself. I came to this country with little education, finished my GED, made it very successfully through Hunter College and BMCC to get my Associate Degree that allowed me to come to Baruch College to pursue my degree in Small Business management. I have a job on the side that allows me to pay for everything, I have recently gotten my Greencard. I have devoted the last 8 years to exactly these two things: Doing everything right in this country to get my Greencard and to get a college degree. I have reached the first goal and am getting close to reaching my second goal. I love what I do and feel confident that I will succeed in my next big goal: Starting my own business. The business I work in right now is a love affair for me and there is some prospect that I could be taking it over from the current owners. So success for me is more to become a business owner than to worry about salary. If I become a business owner I am confident I can manage that operation in a way that it will profitable.
But then there is something else that I need to include in the definition of success for me. Success in business is pretty meaningless if I don’t find happiness in my private life. I am a believer in balance. If one aspect of your life dominates everything else success in that one area might not be a path to happiness and in the end means nothing more but mere numbers on a bank account.
I completely agree with you, I believe lately people have been fooling themselves and believing that success is some materialistic and tangible thing, that why they say you can be the richest person but never be happy. To me at least i feel success is more of a undescribeable sensation everyone has, it can come from accomplishing the slightest thing to the most complex things but it's not something that can really be taken away from you.
Firstly, I'd like to say that no other professor poses such stimulating and thought-provoking questions and i really appreciate the effort you make to give us the best possible learning experiences.
With that said, "Success is accomplishing my goals, whatever they may be."
What i mean by that is that i wish to succeed in everything that i strive to do and achieving that will give me a sense of success. i dont think though, that it has to be so extreme and i believe that if i come close to my (sometimes lofty) goals, i will still feel like a success.
As a result, if l, at some point in my life, lose my job, i will feel like a failure for that specific task. i hope that if that were the case i would have other goals in my life that were achieved so i would not feel like a complete failure and i will have other things that will make me happy.
I do believe though that the hard work that we put into our endeavors is what makes success so sweet and even if we dont achieve the success to the level that we wanted to, we can still feel a strong sense of accomplishment for the effort that we put in.
Lastly, no failure should discourage us for each time we fail we learn from our mistakes and at the very least, we now know "what not to do."
Success to me is to be satisfied with myself and have my family be proud of me. For now, I feel like I’m half way there. My definition of satisfaction is to be able to survive by myself (financially and emotionally) if I was to be kicked out right at the moment from my home. I believe my family carries the same thought as mine; they just want me to be able to be happy at what I’m doing and at the same time, make enough money so that I can at least support myself.
When I saw those news of how people kill themselves or others for their misfortune, I would think, “Do they really value money and fortune more than their own lives/other lives?” A lot of people in the world are happy and considered themselves successful when they just have foods on the table for their family. Luxury is not always the key to success.
Success to me is becoming a positive influence in someone else's life.
I have mentioned this before that being an influential leader may be the ultimate achievement in one's life. Measuring success by money is retarded. I can win the lottery, but that wouldn't make me a "successful" individual. Rather, the way I go about making money should be taken into consideration. Take Oprah for example, possibly the most influential woman to women who has demonstrated first hand how to succeed in a world where females are continually downplayed.
But one does not necessarily have to have money to be influential. Homeless people influence me everyday. I have much respect for them and their ability to carry on day after day living in the condition they do. Success for them may be to make it pass the day without dying. I can't imagine myself being in their position and question myself every time I begin to complain on not having superficial luxuries that are constantly glamorized.
This leads to the next thing I wanted to point out. When you mention "the road you must travel" I feel that it makes it seem that life is an obligation. This is true to an extent as some may say that we in-fact determine our own fate. Others believe we travel as far as a higher entity allows us too and with that in mind I, personally, will try to influence as many people as possible as long as I am here.
In essence, success to me is meaning something in this life we were given no matter in what way it is done and to me it is by being influential. Whether it is through simply becoming a figurehead at my job or as far-fetched as being the overcoming factor to someone who is trying to commit suicide, success is still written in either situation.
Success to me is to keep overcoming myself.
To me, nothing is better than being able to feel good about who you are and what you are. But many a times we may feel inadequate, incapable or just a failure. And when these times hit, I feel the best way and probably the most common way is to deal with it is to challenge that feeling and try to get past it. Self pitying, and pampering gets you no where and is a waste of time.
But challenging this feeling doesn't mean it needs to be done aggressively, nor does it mean that it has to be done by trying to impress others. Instead I feel that when a person learns to overcome themselves, it's more about learning about themselves, including their strengths, their weaknesses, or their comfort zone. Sometimes the answer can even be as simple as understanding why we're feeling the way we do.
A number of people have said that the only upside to this recession is that people are now able to focus, or try and figure out, what they would really like to do in life. Money is a goal that is hard to reach nowadays so people have been stepping back and thinking about what would really make them happy. To me success is being able to wake up in the morning and just being happy with the choices you've made and will be making. Whether it be a job, that may pay well or not so well, that you work hard at and know someone would be proud of you for doing it. I look at many things in life with a, "would my mom be proud of me if she saw me" attitude. I guess it's my own moral compass.
Money is important, obviously. It has to be the number one cause for stress, in my opinion. You need it to survive, to make your kids happy, it strains many relationships, is the cause for marriages ending, just to name a few.
That being said, you can't just do whatever makes you happy. Even though that would be a wonderful way to define success.
I know that in ten years if I am happily married with a secure job that I can tolerate, and a roof over my head, I would consider myself a success.
Don't ask me what would make me successful today, I really don't even know.
success to me is I am able to grab the opportunity to accomplish my goal. many people measure one's success on money and may be GPA at school. I think success is not something you can have right now but something you can have life-long. you never know what is going to happen tomorrow, even you are rich today, you may go bankrupt tomorrow;even you have 4.0 GPA, you may not as competitive as someone who has 3.5 GPA. we should have confidence on yourself and always believe there must be opportunities for you.
For me success is when I accomplish my personal and professional goals. I know that for some people their paycheck and the title on their business card are essential. For me it is very important to keep a line between my professional career and my personal life. I don’t want to make a lot of money and not be able to see my family and my friends. I prefer a less paid job where I can work with minimum stress and where I can accomplish my professional goals, rather than to make a lot of money working long hours, hating my job and being humiliated by my boss. A lot of people don’t leave a choice for themselves. They buy expensive cars and get huge mortgages and of course they have to work like crazy in order to pay their monthly bills. And when they lose their jobs, it’s a big stress for them; some people even commit suicide.
I consider myself successful
Success to me is.......happiness. Success to me is being satisfied and the well being of yourself is very important. My definition might be a bit of a low standard to some, but to me it is something im still working on. Of course, your title, awards, and your paycheck is really important. I'm not saying that all those things don't matter, they do to some extent. This is the reason why people will fight so hard and compete for those things. but those things cannot make you happy. It might for some people, but it is temporary happiness that goes away and you end up with feelings of guilt after. then you start to wonder if all those things matter anymore, because your not happy. In the future when i get a job, of course the high pay, or maybe recognition would satisfy me. However, if im not happy with what im doing then what is the point? live everyday in aggravation doing something that you have no passion for. it is so hard for someone to find something that they enjoy to do and at the same time gain recognition and wealth from it. There are jobs out there, but these opportunities are very minimal. so why not just be happy? This is why my definition to success is hard to achieve. Because happiness is not something so easy to achieve when you have a family to raise and that higher pay is looking so good. Success of life it happiness and just being satisfied with what decisions you make. I will achieve success when i feel all that i've done was the right choice and i am satisfied with the consequences of my decisions. I will achieve success when i weed out all the unimportant things and keep by my side everything that matters; my friends, family and a job that satisfies me.
We, Generation Y, think and behave very differently from Baby Boomers or Generation X. We are independent, free thinkers, and in charge of our own life. We not only know how to use technology, they think and breathe it. They use it to solve problems, to find answers, and to keep in touch with friend. By having the new technology, we are fast- moving and can do multitasking.
We are the group who really want to have a work and life balance, enjoy our life and want fun as well as work hard. We care more about the world and believe that we can make the world a better place to live. We have friends all over the world thought internet.
With all those advantage, I don’t believe that GEN y have a poor performance. We just have different view of life and expectations for work style and performance. Once those manger get know us well and know how to work with us, I believe they will amaze by our performance.
Success to me is accomplishing what I had wanted to accomplish as a goal. To me at this moment I want to be able to pass all my class with atleast a B and in the long-term graduate from baruch and being able to find a job. I dont think that it is neccesaryly a number on a paycheck or a title on your business card. All of that may make you happy but that does not mean that you are succeful. Success is up to you as an indidvidual. Its your goals in life. For me its easy and simple to make it through each semester with atleast a b average and above. Then to get my cpa and a job. I dont think that if lets say i was fired from a job that i am a failure. I believe if i get fired i will learn from what i had done wrong and use that as an experience but not use it as something to put me down. As long as when i look back and I feel as though i did eveything that i can to achieve my goals and do what i wanted to do then i am successful.l i dont have to be millionare or the ceo to be successful.
success to me is being happy for whatever I am doing and enjoying life with my lover, friends and family. I dont think money can make me deeply happy, it does help to make happy. the more money i have, the more chances i can get to do the things I love and spend time with others.
Success to me is when you win over your fears and mind. It means that you did not let anything stop you, even your own voice of yours. Many times people quit or stop, because they let that the voice inside of them wins over them. If you ignore that voice and continue and work hard, you will be able to achieve anything in this world. I know that I let that voice inside of me win over me sometimes, but I try my best to ignore it. I am going to overcome my fears and mind and achieve my goals.
Success might just be one of the hardest things to define. In part because it is often a definition that i want to edit. For example, i'd normally say that a 90 or above on a class exam is "successful". But we get the tests back, and i got a 75, and all of a sudden, i rationalize by telling myself whatever i need to, just to make myself feel like less of a "failure"...so all of a sudden, this class becomes too hard, and the professor is too hard, and a 75 is really not that bad, given how hard of a class this is. I guess i'll change the term as it fits me, just to avoid having to deal with failure. And i'm sure i'll be doing the same 10 years from now when it isnt an exam grade, but rather a promotion or job offer.
Also, i believe that in large part, success is not about what we do for ourselves (and our careers) but the overall impact we have on the world, and the people in it. Even if we don't "make it big" and have the ability to impact thousands of people, it is still a success to know that the people who's lives you DO have the ability to impact, were impacted positively by you. Even if its something as small and meaningless as giving your seat to an elderly person on the subway.
Success to me is to be happy and to make my family and the people I love happy. Also I want to have a healthy balance between my private life and my carrer because both are very important for me.
Success to me is being happy and achieving your goals. I guess you could say that the second part will supplement the first part. I truly believe that happiness is crucial to success. But the definition cannot just be happy, which is what I believed for a long time. Being just happy and having nothing else in your life that drives you is not success. That may be a good life too. But to be successful you must have something to look forward to and something that you could look back on and be proud of.
I believe that a person that is successful is a happy person. If i am happy and i can keep my family happy then i have been a great success. Of course there are other definitions of success but it all depends on what type of success a person is looking for. Speaking for myself money does not mean anything. Its nice to have nice things but i dont really care as long as im happy with people i care for. And that is just for me, but other people find that money is very important. They believe that it is the only thing you can do. But when everything is said and done it doesn't matter how much money you have. What does matter is how happy you are.
I think success consists of three things: having a goal, working towards it, and being satisfied with where you are in your progress towards that goal. By the time in an old woman, I wish to be fluent in as many languages as I can and do a bit of humanitarian work along the way. This is my long term goal. My short terms ones are: becoming bilingual and participating in Habitat for Humanity by the age of 30, (I'm 21 right now). These goals seem too laid back and the deadlines seem like they can be cut down, but for me, they make me satisfied. I'm currently working at my foreign languages and am working towards getting my degree so I can make money and afford being able to go somewhere and help others with my earnings. I find that if I died now, I can be satisfied because I know that I am slowly but surely working towards my goals, even if I haven't achieved them quite yet.
This was definitely something I was thinking about this semester. Especially since I've declared my major to something that I do not really enjoy, but seems like the best way to make money. After all these years, I still do not really know what my definition of success is. It seems like that definition is always changing... sometimes on a daily basis. I'm starting to believe that success is just being happy about your life. I always believed that success was the dollar amount on your paycheck. But obviously that is not my definition of success if it is making me miserable.
But, my definition of success is also making my parents happy. However, my parents want me to pursue a certain career that will make them happy,but does not necessary make me happy. So, I am pretty much stuck.
I still do not really know what "success" means. I guess the people who found their definition of success and are striving for it or have reached it, are the ones who are really successful.
Success to me is to build up my career. I am majoring in Computer Information System. The reasons why I love CIS is to get high paid and CIS doesnt need strong English skill.
Many majors need a good communication skill. Even though I am not a shy person, I have no talent in learning any language including Chinese. And additionally, I am pretty good in logical thinking and math. I feel confident when I stay in CIS classes. And I hope my life could be around CIS.
Success to me is ultimately being able to look back in life when I’m a grandmother and being able to clearly see how I’ve maintained a well balanced life between business and pleasure.
Recently, I’ve changed my way of thinking. Ever since I was young, grades were always very important to me. Even though I performed mediocre, I would give my all and try my best. Now, I still do care about my grades but when I get a grade that’s not satisfactory, I don’t shoot myself down because of it. Instead, I look at the bright side and just try harder the next time around. I’ve also been very daring in a sense that I’ve begun to take chances and go out of my comfort zone just to gain that sense of accomplishment that I can reflect back on later in the years.
Success to me still is about making the big bucks and getting that career that everyone’s been striving for. Some people might not agree with me on this but I do believe that money is a key to happiness. Lots of students have parents who immigrated to America and have struggled to build a solid foundation for their children. I am one of them. I’ve seen how difficult it can get when finances become a problem. Just seeing my parents going through that kind of stress and pulling long hours at their work just to make ends meet, shows me the value that money has on life. I’m not saying that I’d give up everything for money, but money is a key ingredient for my happiness and my feeling of success.
Success is also about maintaining those great relationships in your social life. Factoring out the dependable friends and despicable ones throughout the years. I’d love to look back one day and reminisce about all those good times and laughter that I’d share with them.
Sucess to me is...be at peace with my self where I don't have to wondering where ish te next paychecj coming from and reporting to a boss. This is where I don't have to worry out my safety being in this position. I have a few jobs in my career and I still believe that the sky is the limit and that why I decided to continue my professional development and return to school. If I was to loose my job today I would be devasted because this is what motivate me to go on. I have a family and mortgage to pay and I would hate to start all over at this point. Even if this happen I probably will be depress and withdrawn but not enough for me to take my life. It is often to think of your situation as the worse but there are others who are less fortunate than you no matter what your situation is at this moment. There is a popular expression and i quote" There was a man who decided to take his life and went up in a tree. While setting up the rope to hang himself he was eating a ripe banana for the last time he confessed. After which he drop the banana peel to the ground. At that moment there was a homeless person resting at the root of the tree picked up the peel and said thank you. This peel was not good enough for the man in the tree but it serve as food for the homeless man. Upon seeing this remarkable event.. the person in the tree decided that his situation is not bad as it seems. Here someone is thankful for the banana peel and he was about to commit sucicide". The moral here is that no matter your current situation is just be position and take control and try to improve and make a difference from this day forward. It is not the job title, money, several cars , private plane etc but it is the happiness and peace of mind that you have as well as the people you help that defines success.
My definition of success is undefined at the moment. But like most, my immediate goal is to make money and move my family up on the social status. I am fortunate to have parents who are well off (for the most part), and unlike other student i know, am not struggling to go to school. But I can't depend on them forever. To be successful, I need to be independent. And that is scary and almost taunting when it feels out of reach. I am sure that the older and wiser I get, my perception of success will change, and once I have accomplished what I think success is at the time, I will seek a new meaning of the word and pursue that.
Post a Comment