So, I'm at B&N this weekend, and as usual, I become spellbound by all of the collective knowledge that is, literally, at my fingertips as I walk up and down the aisles. I find it absolutely mind-boggling that you can be in a single edifice and hold the keys to the universe if you look closely enough ( I was, coincidentally, in the space-exploration aisle). I suppose the same could be said if you are standing in a library, but there is something about those clear plastic wrappings they put on library books that makes what is contained within seem less accessible. But, as usual, I digress.
So, there I am, walking among the aisles of knowledge and I find myself in the self-help section looking at all the titles: The Success Book, How to Succeed in Business, 7 Secrets of Successful Teens etc. All of these books, all dedicated to the notion of success.
That was when it hit me--how do these books ever sell?
Aren't all individual ideas of what success is dramatically different? And then, it hit me again..."I wonder what are my poppets' definitions of success is? Hmmmmmm...blog question!" And now, here we are.
So, tell me--what is YOUR definition of success? What are the hallmarks, again, to YOU, of a successful person? How do you judge whether or not you are successful? Are there different levels, different measures of importance tied to levels? What do you need to have, to own, to acquire in order to feel successful? What types of things need to happen in order for you to see yourself as a success?
(450 words/60pts)
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ReplyDeletehmmmm...I'm starting to believe success may not exist. It's an ideal. An unreachable ideal
ReplyDeleteNo it's not, Uroosa! You can do anything you want, as long as you try your best. :) (Sorry, I'm on a happy/positive/inspirational kick today!)
ReplyDeleteFor Kale Nagasaki, success is yearning to have something, to do something, and then subsequently striving for it, putting your entire being into it, and taking everything you can out of the experience (whether your goal is reached or not) in the most honest way possible without expensing others. You need to learn from the endeavor in order to be successful, and I believe that only happens if you commit yourself 100% to everything that’s involved on that journey. To elaborate, I don’t think of getting a 5 on a AP exam as success. However, if you genuinely put your full attention on the class and grew as a person because of it, then I would consider you successful, regardless of what your exam grade was. Cheaters are never successful to me, because they’re ‘success’ is at the expense of someone else’s work.
ReplyDeleteIf my definition of success was THE definition, then I think only very, very few people would be considered successful. I know from just watching people in AP classes that many give up, only half do their work, and belittle the classes they take in order to suffice for their feeling of not being able to handle it. If anti-success were such a thing, it would be this. Not only is carelessness indicative of poor AP scores, it also, for me, by pervading into most aspects of a person’s life, render their life meaningless. If you don’t care, if you don’t try, but feel comfortable muttering under your breath how “this class is stupid anyway,” then you aren’t learning. I’m not just talking about “oh no! you’re not learning the chain rule!” I mean, you aren’t learning discipline, work ethic, motivation. You aren’t bettering yourself, and by making yourself believe it’s acceptable to not care, you’re only setting yourself up for turpitude. With that being said, I think the hallmarks of a successful person are simple: 1) He/She doesn’t complain (I believe complaining takes away from the learning process by inducing stupidity), 2) He/She puts his/her all into everything, whether they value or like the subject or not (No more, “well I’m going to be a firefighter so what do I need Calculus for anyway!”), and 3) He/She learns from everything, grows from everything.
I believe that is the most important one: to grow from everything. I think of myself as successful only if I have grown from the experience. I consider myself successful in Calculus, despite my grade, because I’ve taught myself self-discipline. I consider myself successful in Chemistry because I work harder and show myself the meaning of dedication. I consider myself successful in History, Macroeconomics, and Language because I never let the work deter me, and take everything as it comes. On the other hand, a week ago, I wouldn’t have considered myself successful in Latin. I hated the class and groaned my way through the whole thing, drowning in my negativity. I thought the class was pointless. This week, I realized that if I just treat is as an AP class and do the work, the period doesn’t seem so soul-sucking. So, I’ve learned not to belittle a class. Therefore, I am successful in Latin, and hopefully will acquire the patience to continue to be.
Lastly, I don’t think anything has to happen for you to be set up to be successful. Life isn’t what happens to you, but what you do with the opportunities given to you, and how you respond. Therefore, in every action that you do, there is a chance to be successful, since everything you do is part of your life. And life, ultimately, is a learning process. When Bunje asked Jordan what she valued most, my answer was growth. The growth of the human soul is a greater monument than an image of perfection. Therefore, grow. You’ll be successful that way. :]
I believe I concur with Roo Roo's bold statement.
ReplyDeleteThis is a little reminiscent of last week’s discussion on the 7-point-creed blog. For those of you not in twelfth period Lang, Bunje asked what it is that I valued most and I answered progress before elaborating on the second point of my creed: play to win. Most people equate winning to success and I am one of them. However I understand that there are differences, and stark ones at that. At the closure of our discussion, I decided that the idea behind “play to win” is better captured by “live to progress,” as non-catchy as that sounds.
ReplyDeleteWhen I really sit back and think about it, winning isn’t always succeeding. My team has been beaten by teams who did not deserve to win, and we have certainly won games we did not deserve to. Whether a team scores an own goal or the referee has money on the game, the winning team has not always earned the win. On top of that, a win can be served on a silver platter. There’s a reason competitive sports are broken up into brackets and leagues and divisions. My coach could schedule a game against a slew of low-ranked teams and we could win. No matter the difference in skill or competition levels between two teams, a win is a win is a win.
Success is deserved. In fact, being deserving is a necessary component of success. And success occurs in the face of challenge. Beating a wheelchair-basketball team at soccer does not yield success.
That said, winning is not succeeding. Then what is?
Success is a word all of its own. Describing it doesn’t do it justice; only examples can do that.
Success has little to nothing to do with competition. Winning a race without setting a personal record is not necessarily succeeding. Setting that personal record but finishing dead last- that’s success.
The high school placekicker who loses his leg in a car accident can no longer become the Division I record-holder he always dreamed of becoming. He can set new goals, but it may be a long time before those goals are within sight. He will never play college football as a placekicker, but every morning when he wakes up, smiles, and seeks to improve himself mentally and/or spiritually with the same fervor with which he sought to improve his kick defines success.
One needs not lose a limb or suffer any other catastrophic loss to succeed though. Any person who seeks improvement will improve. And effort that leads to improvement is success, no matter how small or great the improvement appears, or how long it took to improve, or the area in which the improvement was made.
Smoking one less cigarette a day is a success. Approaching just one day with a more optimistic attitude is a success. Investing just a little more effort into an assignment is a success. Helping out around the house is a success.
Success is not definable, but its definition can be found all around.
Comments:
ReplyDeleteUroo: Aww. I really hope that your believing that there is no such thing as success doesn't have anything to do with Chemistry or Pre calc.... They and also Ms. Bunje's class often make me feel like their is no such things as well...
You are brilliant. You are successful. You are wonderful. Never forget it Roosa..<3
Kale: I liked how you went from sucess from Kale's point of view to sort of your own, Deanna's point of view, to people in Ap classes. Your transitions made sense and, as always, your writing made me think. You writing is awesome. Stay smiling!
My definition of success seems to be a lot like Kale’s definition. Success is when someone wants to do something, puts the work in, and than accomplishes that specific thing. You can be successful in a variety of things as long as it is what you wanted and set out to do. It is pretty cut and dry.
ReplyDeleteSuccessful people come in all shapes and sizes. (Wow that seems so cliché…) However, successful people usually hold a few key characteristics. Determination is important in order to be successful. You have to want it, want it more than anything in the world and, of course, not let anything get in your way. Dedication. You cannot get distracted and lose sight of the goal you have set in front of you. Responsibility. It is up to you to reach your goal, not anyone else’s responsibility. It is all up to you. Humility. Once you reach your goal, you cannot become a snob. Successful people who are snobby are lonely successful people. Truly successful people do not push others away. Instead they encourage others to reach their goals as well.
I suppose to anyone, there are different levels of success. Some people are successful mothers while others have started from the bottom and worked their way up to being a partner of a company. The first usually considers a lower level than my second example. In my opinion, it is not my place to judge who is more successful than another person, although, I find myself sometimes doing it when I pass an AP class over my boyfriend who passed his CP class. It is also not up to be to describe what you have to have, own, or acquire in order to feel successful. Because of my definition is so vague and can mean something different to any single person, what you need to have in order to be successful is also different to each person. Depending on what you were striving for, having a small house that you pay for on your own, without the help of mom and dad, is what you need to feel successful. While others feel the need to have mansion and a well paying job to feel successful. It is all in what you set out to do that determines when you are successful and what you need to show that you are finally successful.
I, personally, have high expectations for myself. However, my downfall is having little confidence in myself in order to reach those high expectations. Because of my goal in life, what I need to feel successful will take me a lot longer than if I had made an easier, quicker goal for myself. I want a big house, big family, and well paying job. I want stability for my family and a loving marriage. These are things that I strive for in my life. For me to feel like a successful person, I want to graduate high school and college will flying colors and get a job in the hospital. I would like to continue my schooling while saving money and than start a family. Once I have a job, a home, and a family… I will feel successful.
However, like Uroosa, I have days where I feel like it does not exist. It seems my goals are too far ahead and my present struggles take over. I have never felt as stupid as I do in AP Lang. I have never just forgotten a formula that I just recited to the teacher two seconds before the test like I do in AP Chemistry. I have never tried so hard to get something and just cannot get the light bulb to come on like in Pre Calc. I have never wanted to give up and throw in the towel as much as I have this year. The only thing that keeps me going is the success that I have already had in previous years and the hope that more success is to come.
Success: That's a big pressuring word to me.
ReplyDeleteI believe that success should let you say "ahhh.." at the end.
Like "finally!" or at peace you have done all that you can put into this project or goal.
-Does an A on your report card success, of course.
-Does an intense save from a goalie during a field hockey game success, of course.
-Does talking to your hurt friend and supporting them make you successful as a friend, of course.
-Does studying your hardest and putting all the effort you have then getting a C successful?
-Does going to every practice in pre-season, the season, and conditioning on the weekends then when you're reaching to block the ball yet it passes right by you and into the goal successful?
-Does after speaking with your friend and you put out all what you had to offer, yet they are still hurting, does that make you a successful friend?
It scares me to think that people would only accept success by the standard form they offer us. That we are only successful when we have the perfect grade, the perfect block, or the perfect effect on a friend. I always wanted to know who put those numbers, the letters, the systems that say we have succeeded or not. If I know I just gave my all then I know I have succeeded because I learned my weak and strong points. In very rare occasions can someone be good at everything. Even though you can get straight As, only a couple of those subjects are your truly talented at and might not have to try as hard as others. Most likely that's the subject you will major in, when you go off to college and get your degree and you are on a roll! You become a "successful" adult right? Good job, nice family, and fun friends? When you look back, you look back on a time period where you tried hard to reach where you are now and you think "Wow I really enjoyed doing this and that". That in itself is success, not because you reached a dream job, but because you enjoyed reaching and working for it. You went through obstacles and didn't give up to arrive to this outcome. That is success to me. If you pursued a job because of money, power, or pure laziness yet you are living with all the material objects surrounding you, that's not success in my eyes. Deep down you are not content or happy with what you do because your reason of pursuing was without feeling. I also don't believe a teacher can tell you if you were successful or not because that's a personal fight you have with yourself. Whoever put that A or 93 is success obviously hasn't meet many people or didn't realize how we are not standardized into CP, Honors, and AP levels. The simplest way to think of it is, does an A in CP equal or is as successful as an A in AP? To me yes, it is. Did the student try? Did the student leave that school year with something new learned? If yes, then any grade is a success. It all depends on how others (maybe colleges? or parents?) perceive it.
---------------------
My mother just walked by and asked what I was typing about.
I asked her "How would you define success?"
Her answer, "To find what you excel at, and pursue it farther and maybe even improve upon it in the future."
That's true but if it's true then why are we pressured to get perfected grades in all subjects to only pursue one later one?
I feel like my heart says success is all the above, but my mind tells me to win approval and succeed by colleges' standards. I can not deny their approval because they are the gateway to my definition of success. For me to be successful in my heart, I have to pass through their system of success though I don't believe in it, but I need them to get my dream job and move forward in my life.
---I wonder if anyone sees success as $ucce$$???
To Lauren: I m happy that you are on happy/positive/inspirational kick...It makes you Lauren and thats why we love you :)
ReplyDeleteDeana
ReplyDelete“I don’t think of getting a 5 on a AP exam as success. However, if you genuinely put your full attention on the class and grew as a person because of it, then I would consider you successful.”
I agree with you one-hundred percent when you say that. I know that there is no way I am getting a five on the Chem test. I’ll be lucky if I get a three. However, I won’t drop the class because Mr. Matlack keeps saying that the lessons we learn will help us when we take Chem in college. I like that you added complaining as part of not being successful. I disagree, because I believe that someone can complain and still grasp the concept they are learning, however, it is extremely annoying.
manar h
ReplyDeletei was just skrolling up and saw this
---I wonder if anyone sees success as $ucce$$???---
that is soooo funny!!!!!!
Part 1:
ReplyDeleteThis blog is hard for me too, because lately I haven’t been feeling successful, or my level of success has lowered tremendously. When I say that, I mean that I wait till last minute to things, my confidence in my grades is horrible; I will settle for a C because it’s passing. That isn’t me. I half shit everything just to get it done. I know what I want; I just can’t reach it.
So as I rev up to do this blog, I try to figure what I want to do to increase my success. The song Successful by Drake says “Yeah, I want it all, that's why I strive for it”. So I am listening to that and I’m not going to settle for nothing but the best. That is what success is to me; not settling for 2nd place, always trying to be the best and working hard for it. But most importantly knowing at the end of the day, you worked your hardest. You can only judge your own success. Do not judge others. If you make fun of a lunch lady for being that, you don’t know their situation, so maybe they are successful. Everyone’s opinions of success are different. You just have to work for your own. You can’t compare your success with other peoples; that’s when you’ll go nuts. As long as you’re happy and know you worked hard and earned what you got.
Just as we all have our own definitions for success, we have our own ways of reaching them. For myself, like I said, I keep settling for C’s and B’s. Well, I don’t settle for them, I’m just satisfied. I know I work my hardest, or well, try my hardest. I think there are two levels of success: being satisfied and then being proud. The difference of the two is: I failed the 1st marking period of Algebra 2, so this marking period I went in with a new attitude. I got a 91 on my first quiz, I was on the right track, I was proud of myself. It was the first thing I told my mom when she got home. Then on my next quiz, I got a 34…oops. I was in a dark place and I kept digging myself a deeper grade. I hated the feeling of feeling unsuccessful. Then I was ready for the next one! I received an 80. I was satisfied. I needed an 80 to get out of the failing position I was in, and now I had a D. So a 91 made me proud and an 80 made me satisfied. Even though I am not successful in that class, I’m slowly fixing that. But I think a 91 and an 80 are successful, but on different levels.
In order for me to feel successful I needed confidence. If you aren’t confident that you can do it, then you never will. It would be hard to strive for something you think you will fail at. You also need patience. You are going to fail sometimes, but you need keep working and working at it. Quitters never win, and winners never quit. So if you want to be the best, you have to work. With soccer, everything I wanted this year, I didn’t get. I didn’t get captain, or CAL, or any special awards. So I’m patient and I am going to work until I am the best. But just because I didn’t get those things, doesn’t make me unsuccessful. I made a name for myself this season, so I’m satisfied, but not proud. So I’m going to be confident with my play and patient with my results for next year.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteI think everyday is a successful day. But certain things don’t NEED to happen in order for me to feel successful. I don’t have to get an A on every test in order for myself to feel successful. As long as I worked hard and tried hard, I’m successful. I try to be number 1 and I try to not settle for B’s or C’s, but I’m not a failure. I will not beat myself up over things like that. But now that I have measured my success, I want to raise that bar and be proud and not just satisfied. I want to be the best…or the best I know I can be. If I can do that, then I will be successful.
In the most literal sense of the question, I feel that success is determined by whether or not I achieve a goal that I set, but I really think you want to know what quests I think I should undertake in order to become successful as a person. So, this one is tied directly to the last blog, talking about our personal creed. If I can adhere to my creed, go above and beyond the minimum requirements to make the world (and myself) better, that makes me successful. I don’t care about possessions or status – those are petty things for petty people, who live for themselves. Of course there are things that we need to lead a more or less normal and healthy life, but those are not what is important in life for me. If I can make someone else’s life better, I have been successful. Other people have different ideas of success – a big house, five cars, a real job – and that’s okay. That’s what makes them happy. So I think, really, what makes people feel successful is the feeling of happiness with their situation in life. And since success can be gauged by happiness, there must be different levels of success, since there are different levels of happiness. This relates to the fact that my idea of success is goal-oriented, and I think that is the same for other people, just they are more regimented about it. Someone accomplishes a goal, they feel more successful – that simple. However, I think that for most people their self-perception of success dwindles with time, but I’m not sure. I’m not most people.
ReplyDeleteDeanna N.: "if you genuinely put your full attention on the class and grew as a person because of it, then I would consider you successful, regardless of what your exam grade was."
ReplyDeleteI like that, because some people just can't do the same things as other people - it would be unfair to judge their successes as inferior because it is only the best of their abilities.
manar.h: "In very rare occasions can someone be good at everything."
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's rare, I think it's nonexistent. Nobody is good at everything, even if they seem like they are. But they seem to be good at everything because they are trained in everything that seems to matter, which is usually a short range of skills that get a grade and together ship you off to a good college. The simple things, like having good balance and being able to tie your shoes so they don't come undone, are sometimes what the achievers overlook when they are trying to be successful.
Megan S: "You can only judge your own success. Do not judge others."
ReplyDeleteYes, but you can compare yourself to others, if that is how you determine how successful you are. Personally, I think you should only have to compete with yourself, and if you are only competing with yourself you shouldn't judge other people either. You're not them, you don't know their story, as far as you know they're doing their best and being successful.
Stephanie: You know that you are a successful person and will continue to be: you don’t need to hope. I see so many people give up trying, but you only try harder when things become more difficult. Of course, as you agreed with mine, I agree with your definition too. One thing I didn’t mention in my blog but now that yours brought it up, I want to say that I also agree with your comment on the levels of success. As you said, every person starts from a different place, so each successive level of success is different for each person. That was a good point. Besides that, eye wuv you :D
ReplyDeleteJourdan: It’s funny you mentioned your response to Mrs. Bunje’s question. When she asked you that and you said progress, I smiled because, after I thought about it, my response was growth. Sometimes it makes me laugh that two completely different people come to similar conclusions. Regarding your blog though, since we had a similar definition of success (I didn’t disagree with anything you wrote), I think that shows we value similar things. I relate to your sports example, because those awkward wins and losses have happened to me. But my point is, the fact that you don’t focus on the idea of winning for success implies that you value the struggle more. It’s about improving, as you said. I guess what I’m basically trying to say is that, with the way you define success, life is going to be a whole lot easier and more enjoyable for you because you’ll never really consider yourself a ‘loser.’ That’s good. :]
Robert: You made the connection between success and happiness, something I oddly would have never thought of. I guess you’re right. If someone’s satisfied with their lives thus far, then it’s only natural they feel successful. Or at least, feel as if they haven’t failed anything. Your personal definition of success along with your creed portray you as a very selfless, righteous person. Which I’m sure you are --- I’m not doubting that. But it does make me wonder, is there anything you desire for yourself and yourself only? Focusing on others might be covering up something you don’t want to face about yourself.
Shmegan
ReplyDelete"So a 91 made me proud and an 80 made me satisfied. Even though I am not successful in that class, I’m slowly fixing that. But I think a 91 and an 80 are successful, but on different levels."
The 91 and the 80 aren't successful. They're numbers and no more than a rough assessment of your knowledge of the subject. You're successful in your algebra 2 class (and in other areas, too) not because of a number at the top of your paper or even your knowledge of the subject. I consider you successful in that class even with your failing marking period and the 34 on your second quiz because you took your failures and worked at improving them. Success and failure can coexist and sometimes failure is a driving force behind success.
Deanna:
ReplyDeleteSomewhere between the well-elaborated sentences and strong language, one small, nearly bland, line stood out amongst the rest: "then you aren’t learning."
Those 4.5 words (4.5 because "aren't" technically could be two words) made me think about my definition of learning and I think may have just added depth to me as a person. I like learning, but when I say it, I usually mean the ooh!-snapple-cap kind of learning. But from now on, I'm going to allow the word learning to encompass a broader range of ideas. I like learning, but I also like learning.
To define such a word as success would be nearly as impossible as describing the world love; however, I would be able to describe such a feeling of success through personal life experiences.
ReplyDeleteIn order to become successful, one must absolutely desire the want of something, say, it could anything for that matter. Ensuing the desire, one must take all actions possible to obtain their dream with great persistence, and motivation. If one soars above all hurdles that were in the way, including the temptation of cheating themselves in any sort of matter, they have most likely reached temporary success. Keyword: temporary.
Success doesn't live on multiple-levels because in order to be successful, you must progress constantly to achieve success. Success is not permanent.
Getting the girl of your dreams may be a success for you, but that success can and will never be perpetual. Relationships are constantly needing to grow-- there are no perfect relationships, no matter how beautiful, non-confrontational, or happy. There's always something that has to be fixed that will make us stronger, and that's what's beautiful about human relationships
Sprinting down a 100m race, and getting fourth place may even be success. But wait, losing? Losing is a success? We, AP Children, with most of being athletes too, can be successful even if we lose? Success never entailed winning, not ever. No promises, no pinky-swears. Yet, success has always entailed growing. You may win, or, more or less, lose in fourth place, but the thing is, is that if you beat your personal best, then you have met success. You have grown, yeah?
Oh, but there's a thing about success. You have to be happy with your growth because in reality, nobody can measure your success on a scale. It's all you. Success isn't measured in how many brand name purses you have, or how many sport cars can fit in your garage, or even how big your house is. So, you may have met your 15 minute success, but believe me, humans have an incredible amount of potential to grow stronger-- we just don't know realize this. And anyways, what does it matter if you're not happy with your "personal best"? I also try to knock the stress factor that comes along with being successful because if you're stressed, then obviously, there's something that needs to be fixed.
Keep growin' on, folks.
Oh lord, posting my blog this early is my personal best time! :D
ReplyDeleteToday I’m drowning in an incredible lack of success. I miserably failed a chemistry test, that I actually studied a lot for. I got in a fight with my mom this morning, and I barely made my bus. I’ve been having a hard time connecting to some of my closest friends lately, and it finally came to the point where that was undeniable. The last few weeks have been rough. I’ve been feeling really closed in and trapped lately. Even worse I haven’t felt like myself in a while. I know every negative person says this, but really I’m usually a lot more positive and energetic than this. I’ve been asking myself lately why everything collapsed.
ReplyDeleteAt one point something cut through my barriers and my strength, then all the things that bounced off me before suddenly hurt. I was really willing to believe that it was just a string of bad luck. However looking back I finally see the domino effect. Failure begins when one thing ruins your balance. It’s like standing on a balance beam. Once something makes you wobbly, it only takes little pushes to knock you over. The secret to success is balance. You need to understand how much of yourself you should put into the different parts of your life. Mastering the balance is one of the hardest things to do in life, but no matter what you are trying to succeed at it is the key. Balance is not only the goal, but the means. You could be a genius, but if you don’t try to communicate that, consistently learn, face new experiences, or work hard, you won’t amount to anything. Your life is the Olympics. There are many different arenas to succeed or fail in. Your family, friends, school, and job are all going on at once.
Balance is not a simple secret to success, nor is it easy to reach. You have to decisively know your priorities and goals. Spontaneity happens, but it is the day to day trials that really determine your fate. I will have random victories, and make silly mistakes, but I can not depend on them. Choosing to study, then give myself enough time to relax, and being there for a friend are the things that add up. They are not always the most memorable, but they accumulate to be mountains in your life. When I am on top of things, and have a grasp on where my life is going, I feel most successful. I’m building mountains for college and a better future me. However your mountains can also send you to very scary and bleak places. There are not many people who can sustain putting all of themselves into every single aspect of their life. It would be beautiful and amazing if it was possible for everyone, but it’s not realistic to me. I don’t believe you have to do that to be successful. You have to know what’s important to you, then regularly balance those things. Therefore feeling successful can be a day to day thing. There’s no “happily ever after” here. I believe you have to make each day successful as it comes. It’s silly to achieve one great thing, then stop (besides where‘s the balance in that?).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteManar- Do you play field hockey?!?
ReplyDeleteRobert F - Yes that's true but isn't that a talent to be able to be good in every class?
ReplyDeleteJourdan - That's how I feel most of the time that it's about the effort and what you got out of it. I'd be proud of that C too, but as well I would never be able to put it on my fridge because it's not acceptable to show that you fell short in my household.
Kelsey C- Yes I play field hockey since 5th grade :) I just missed this years season cause of the whole moving to a new area situation.
Robert F "But they seem to be good at everything because they are trained in everything that seems to matter, which is usually a short range of skills that get a grade and together ship you off to a good college"
ReplyDeleteI think if they are trained and actually do seem to be good in every subject that that in itself is a talent because in the end we do need those -"short range of skills"- to be able to have a future we want and we need to get-" a grade and a good college"- to even start thinking about it.
Success is being able to grow from an experience while enjoying what you are doing.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, Oakcrest swam EHT in probably the biggest swim meet of the season. I knew odds were against me for winning diving and my team needed a first place finish if there was any chance of winning the meet. I strategized for weeks, only to figure out that my strategy had failed. I did not win, but I learned a few things along the way. At first I had been concentrating on my loss and how I hurt the team, but than I realized that I had scored my career best and made it to states. Normally I am the first to be disappointed in a second place, but I had an amazing meet and could not stop laughing the entire time. I had realized that success was not winning or losing, it is just becoming a greater person than what you were before.
A successful person, knows there limits and sets goals to surpass them. They are people that can laugh at a mistake, but learn from it. Successful people must have perseverance and determination, without these characteristics, will not stick to the task at hand. Having fun, is also a key factor in success. It is impossible to truly be a success if you do not enjoy what you do. No matter how much money you make, you are not successful unless you can smile everyday. A person who shows up everyday for work, loving what they do, they are successful. A student who is doing poorly in a subject and studies to get a better grade, they are successful. Making the most of every situation and day is a successful person.
To me there is only one level of success. There is either growth or failure. It is sort of harsh to say, but in my opinion there is no in between. The success of being looked up to by many, or just knowing deep inside that you did not fail, they are all just as important. There is no one item that is needed to be successful; it’s just the idea of knowing you did not fail. Understanding this helps create more successes in the future.
When I see myself as a success, I see people cheering for me after that winning score, or getting that grade back that I worked so hard to achieve. Personally, I set high standards for myself and when they are not met I am not a success. Each day I have at least one goal that I aspire to achieve before I hit the pillow that night. Yes, this does leave failure wide open, but if I do not fail I will never grow.
Success: a state that, when achieved, provides a sense of happiness, or at least comfort
ReplyDeleteSuper general, I know, but success is something that can’t be put in a cute little Christmas box, wrapped up neatly, and topped with a curling-ribbon bow. It is, rather, a condition that varies from person to person, situation to situation. Success could be getting an “A” on one test, or it could be getting a “C” on another that you thought you would never pass. It could be winning a tough race, or it could be losing the race yet beating your personal best and having fun along the way. It could be riding through life showing grandprix jumpers, or spending your days flying over logs with a scruffy pony and a Western saddle and loving every moment of it.
Essentially, success can be a general accomplishment (getting the A or C), reaching a new height (winning a race or gaining experience without “winning”), or simply existing in a satisfying state of being (being a rider who loves being able to show grandprix or another who has fun with a backyard pony). Success can be experienced at many levels—the grandprix rider competes at a high profile professional level while the backyard “for fun” rider’s level is hardly recognized by others. However, while outsiders may view the grandprix rider as the more “successful” of the two, success s best judged by the rider’s own satisfaction with his or her endeavors. If the backyard rider couldn’t care less about showing at all, her ability to ride the way she does and to enjoy herself in the process makes her just as successful as a grandprix rider who loves showing at such a prestigious level. However, if the backyard rider wants to participate in shows one day, she can consider her success to be at a lower level—but, so long as she is comfortable with that level, a success nevertheless. Similarly, if the grandprix rider is not at all content at his level, perhaps because he yearns for nothing but to participate in the Olympics, he is not truly successful.
It is important to realize that success is based on accomplishments, not piggybacking off of the work of others or exploiting others’ weaknesses. Getting a satisfying grade on a test is not a success if it came from cheating; winning a race is not a success if the winner is a highschoolers and the other competitors are sixth graders; showing grand prix is not a success if you board your horse at the showground and get to practice the jumping courses daily. Besides being able to work for their own success, other qualities of successful people are determination to become successful and to stay that way and, as mentioned before, happiness or at least comfort in their current state.
As for me, I think that I’m more or less successful overall in the areas I care to be, although I always strive to be better. For instance while I’d say that I’m a fairly successful rider, I’m not at the level of success that I hope to one day achieve and I definitely have bad days. Same goes for school: while I’m often successful with class, sometimes I fail miserably even when I try to do my best (case in point: chem test that I’m 99% sure I bombed). The important thing is to look at the big picture. We all have strong points and weak areas, good days and bad ones. But if we’re able to, at the end of the day, step back and feel satisfied with our accomplishments and overall effort, we have certainly achieved success.
SUCCESS! A winning adventure to Borders? Success! A passing grade in calculus? Success! Finding keys at the bottom of your purse? Success! Ok, so maybe my version of success is a little skewed and maybe I use success a little lightly, but like Horton Hears a Who says, “A success is a success no matter how small.” Ok, maybe, that wasn’t the exact quote, but that’s not the point. Point is, success doesn’t have to be exceeding expectations, sometimes successes are all about the little things.
ReplyDeleteI think people are so driven to make more goals for themselves that we forget to celebrate what we just accomplished. Sure, going to Borders and accomplishing some homework, drama projects, and some much needed girl talk doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if what we set out to achieve was achieved, then why not be proud?
Of course there are different levels of success. An executive at a company’s financial success is better then passing calculus. Ben Franklin discovering electricity is far more successful then finding keys. But better then all of these things, and what I consider to be the very definition of success is completing something that makes you happy. That is why I appreciate the little everyday successes so much, they make me happy and I’m not afraid to consider something silly successful (P.s. Alliteration and I didn’t even mean to…SUCCESS!). This may just be one of the routes to my effervescent happiness. I celebrate whatever I want when I want to! I don’t know about you, but I’d rather succeed in something small everyday then set an unreachable future goal that I may someday fail at so that I end up overlooking my small successes in the mean time.
Honestly, I keep trying to find the words to explain how a businessman is the ultimate success story…but I just don’t believe that. Successes don’t just come in long term life forms. Sure one can have a successful life and yes for that you need to have had a few major successes to outweigh the mistakes, but I like to live in the moment. Seriously think about it: How many of you get an A on a really hard test smile for 5 seconds and then forget all about it the minute you remember the piles of homework you have to do? You just succeeded, yeah you have homework and that’ll get done because ultimately you have a long term goal of passing the AP test/class but why not be happy for some time about what you just did? I think we’d all be a lot better off if we started appreciating what we have done for a moment and then look towards what we will do.
A lot of this boils down to standards. What I consider a success is going to be a lot different then what most of you consider a success, I get that. I know half of you would scoff to hear I think a C on a Calc test is totally a success (are A’s and B’s nice, yes, but let’s be real here.) So tap into some motivation, the only real tool you need to be successful, and SUCEED because if you can dream it, you can do it!
Achieving something, anything, that I planned to achieve counts to me as success. Basically, achieving anything that I set myself up to, any goal that I’ve prepared myself to accomplish, is success in my eyes. I think though that success is not only achieving the goal, but it is going far and beyond it. In my eyes, I’m successful whenever I surpass my goal by a million miles. I don’t find it too successful when I reach my goal and feel only content or satisfactory. Those words, to me, are just pathetic excuses for hustling your way to what you’ve planned to achieve.
ReplyDeleteA successful person is someone who feels like they’ve gained something new from whatever they may be doing. For me, I found that my latest success was finishing off Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a bang. I knew that once I took my final bow at the end of Friday night’s show that I’ve gained so much experience from all this. I felt successful. I was exhausted and drained out, but damn it, I felt successful.
It was a lot of hard work to finish that show. It took so much time and so many sacrifices to put on a show like that, but it pays off. Many people say that it takes a lot of hard work for success to happen. I believe in that, but only to a certain extent. I say “to a certain extent” only because many people work hard at things every day but not all of them feel successful even after the work is done. But I do believe though that the more hard work you put into a project, the more you find yourself reaping the rewards at the end. I think you feel a much greater sense of accomplishment knowing that you’ve put all this effort into working for a goal.
Furthermore, I don’t think hard work does it alone. I think that passion and dedication can set you on a track straight towards success. Passion is like the fuel that keeps the train going, while determination is what keeps it on the track. Having both leads to nothing but great things for the person who bears them. I think in order to stand out this world, you have to love the things you do and fight for what you believe in.
“What types of things need to happen in order for you to see yourself as a success?” It sounds stupid, but I just want to be happy. I think that when I can find everything at peace and everything’s running the way it’s supposed to be, I will find success. Right now, I just need for everything to shift towards the right direction so that I can feel successful. I’d like to say that I need certain things from the fashion industry to help me feel successful, but that’s too far into the future. I think that before I think about achieving success at that time period, I need to be able to fulfill the gaps in this period with a check to make sure that I’m successful now, later, and forever.
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI wish that I can appreciate the smaller things in life as much as you do. I'm a dreamer. I dream big, which sometimes works against me. I do think about though sometimes that I should be thankful and feel successful that I can live another day to experience things such as Border's adventures and girl talks.
P.S.
Your entire first paragraph made me think of Ragtime and the song Success that Tateh sings. Oh the memories.
Manar,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, HI! You must be the new student in Bunje's 12th period, I'm assuming.
Second,
I'm definitely agreeing with you on the whole having fun in reaching your dream job. See, my parents have always told me that I should become a doctor or a lawyer because of the pure fact that it will get me money. I hate it. Sometimes I wish that I could just go to New York and live life, experience new things like the arts and the atmostphere of such a city. I also agree with the fact that we shouldn't be solely judged on grades. Because sometimes, grades don't measure how much knowledge the person's really held into any subject.
Kelsey,
ReplyDelete"Having fun, is also a key factor in success. It is impossible to truly be a success if you do not enjoy what you do. No matter how much money you make, you are not successful unless you can smile everyday."
I think about this everytime I think of the job that I want after college or even after high school. I've always wanted, as you know, you design clothes. It's a risky business but I know that I will love it. But then I always find myself getting stuck in the whole money situation and the stability of the job, which gets me doubting whether or not I'd be able to do it.
JV Gonzales
ReplyDeleteHi! & You assumed right! :)
“What types of things need to happen in order for you to see yourself as a success?” It sounds stupid, but I just want to be happy. I think that when I can find everything at peace and everything’s running the way it’s supposed to be, I will find success."
In no way do I find that stupid because what's life's materials or companionships if you're not happy? If someone is not at peace with themselves at the end of the day, they have wasted away valuable time and only made themselves miserable . Wanting to be happy is in no way sounding stupid I think we all want that, but our goal to happiness differ.
Success is being satisfied with what you have, your accomplishments and who you are. Which, Uroosa was partly right before, that success is virtually impossible to experience. But that's only because I believe humans are rarely ever "satisfied" with what they have and what they've done. Success is kind of like perfection. Humans can always get close, but never quite achieve it. A person who is successful is someone who truly tries towards their goals, does their best to live the life they want, the life they can be satisfied with. I judge whether or not I am successful by looking at every realm of my life- school, home, relationship, friends. If I can look at them and if I'm satisfied and I'm happy with their condition, I'm successful. That's for present success. For overall whether or not I was successful in my life, if I can look back on my life and be happy with what I've achieved and what kind of mark I made and got what I essentially wanted, then I'm successful. If I'm happy, if I achieved my dreams then I'm successful.
ReplyDeleteThere are different levels of success. There are small successes, for instance completing a small goal or overcoming a problem in your life. Then there are large overall successes- did you achieve your life goal, did you do everything you wanted, did you become the person you wanted to.
There is nothing you considerably have to "own" in order to be successful, except if your main goal in life is owning physical, material things. But I think to feel successful you need to have certain skills and a certain mindset. You need to be able to forgive yourself. without being able to forgive yourself, you will never be able to look back on your life and see it as well-lived. To be successful, a person also has to have drive. Without drive, a person can never reach their full potential. If someone doesn't try their best, there will always be that "what if I actually tried" phenomena. If everyone just tries their best, even if they don't achieve exactly what they want, they did as much as they could to move towards it, which is a success in itself, perseverence.
In order to be successful you need to have achievements. Achievements never come unless with goals, so a person needs to establish goals in order to see yourself as a success. A person with no real ambition can win so many awards and never feel successful because they didn't have any desires to fulfill in the first place, therefore there's no satisfaction. But someone with ambition can achieve that goal, as well as many others along with it, and feel content because they know they did something.
As long as you do your best, are satisfied with your life and who you are and how you lived, as long as it wasn't at the expense of another, you are successful.
Taylor -
ReplyDelete"Point is, success doesn’t have to be exceeding expectations, sometimes successes are all about the little things."
I really liked this statement. Sometimes people expect too much out of themselves. If we are all just satisfied with smaller things, a lot of people would be happier. Maybe not concentrate only on smaller things, but less on the bad, bigger things in life. Optimism brings light to success that some people never knew existed in their lives.
JV -
"Furthermore, I don’t think hard work does it alone. I think that passion and dedication can set you on a track straight towards success."
I completely agree with this. Sometimes I don't understand the unmotivated people in Oakcrest that just float along in their lives. Even in the worst of times in my life, I still have something I'm passionate about, I still have some sort of drive towards something. There are just some people without drive, and I don't know how they live with themselves! It's shocking! I don't understand how people can only want to do absolutely nothing. That doesn't make them successful, at least, I don't think.
Jessie -
"It is, rather, a condition that varies from person to person, situation to situation."
I agree with this statement so much. Success can only be defined on a personal level, which explains why your definition would be so broad- it has to be. I find it horrible when people judge others and say they wasted their life. If that person really worked hard at what they wanted, then they didn't waste their life- they were successful. Now, it's a different story if they just did nothing in general, didn't do any work at all towards anything, then it's on them.
Jourdan:
ReplyDelete“On top of that, a win can be served on a silver platter… No matter the difference in skill or competition levels between two teams, a win is a win is a win. Success is deserved.”
Good point. While I definitely think that winning can be succeeding, the two are by no means inextricably linked. It does seem like many people view the two as synonyms, though, probably because few stop to consider that not every game is set up fairly or that a set of teams may be particularly unequal in skill. Rather, people want a show, they want to see a winner, and to the spectator that winner is “successful”.
Taylor:
“I don’t know about you, but I’d rather succeed in something small everyday then set an unreachable future goal that I may someday fail at so that I end up overlooking my small successes in the mean time.”
One of my favorite quotes is “It’s good to have an end to journey towards, but it’s the journey that matters, in the end”. It’s important to value the smaller, daily successes; I think you’ll have a much easier time finding happiness along your “journey” than many because of this. It’s something I definitely have to work on though—I’m the one who “get[s] an A on a really hard test smile for 5 seconds and then forget all about”.
Megan:
“I want to be the best…or the best I know I can be. If I can do that, then I will be successful.”
I think that the “best I know I can be” part is crucial. Success is personal; others cannot fairly judge your level of success because they don’t know what you can do or what you consider to be successful. Don’t get discouraged with grades… or anything else… you know what you want and you sound determined to improve and because of that I’m sure you’ll be successful.
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ReplyDeleteSuccess is playing Mario Kart and when you're about to lose, a red shell comes out of the sky and you WIN. YESSSSS!
ReplyDeleteNo. I'm kidding. Please don't fail me! haha (Even though that was one of the best moments of my life.) I am so lost on this question. I'm going to be honest. I really don't like these questions where you define things! I won't whine though! (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
"Seventy percent of success in life is showing up." I believe that every day is a success. Even if you really don't do much at all, as long as you're content at the end of the day, it's all okay. Even if I constantly do badly at my academics, I'm still learning at least one thing every day. That's success to me. Even though I didn't get a part in Willy Wonka, I still tried out! (And it was embarrassing! haha!) What counts even more is that I laughed at myself in the end which to me is a big success. "In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail."
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
I have really difficult dreams that I’m not sure I’ll ever accomplish. I want to draw stories and make movies. I want to entertain and make both kids and adults laugh. I want to work for big titles such as Pixar or Dreamworks. No one knows if I’ll ever get there or not...if I don’t get there, big deal.
To me, living and learning will be a success. I’m looking forward to getting out of this state and meeting new people and seeing new places. I want to meet other cartoonists just like me. I want to learn from them and maybe even teach them some new things. I look forward to just spending my time doing what I love. Even if I end up working at McDonalds, having each night to spend painting or drawing will be great.
Do I see myself as successful? Huh.
Well, actually, I wrote a diary entry about two weeks ago…and I thought it fit in with this. Yeah, that’s right. I’m letting you into my diary! Oh, boy! Okay, I’m embarrassed, but whatever.
“High school is really shitty right now...but I'm laughing a lot. I've made so many friends since Oakcrest. And now every time I laugh and joke with them, I realize that our time together is running out. I'm going to try to live every moment to the fullest. I might never see half these people again. In other news: Harry Potter is f*cking amazing. Seriously. The movies DONT EVEN COMPARE. AUGH! I was so mad when… (I’m going to skip typing this part because I go into a rant about Harry Potter movies and spazz over how awesome Harry Potter is.) ….Honestly, the last book was my all time favorite. I couldn't even breathe while reading. I haven't gotten into a book since about the beginning of last year...and Harry Potter brought me back. I love reading. I LOVE IT. I want to cry. As the days go by, I'm getting extremely nervous about my future. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know where I'm going to go. I'm just trying to enjoy high school with no worries. I can't wait to get out of Jersey. I can't wait to start my next adventure. Crystal is so extremely close to me. I miss her so much. Every day has been hard without her. I always want to call her to ask something or just to talk, but I remember she's not at home or at school. I miss sending her goofy text messages before getting off the bus. Her mom is coming tonight to take the money for my plane ticket. I can't wait to visit. It will be something I won't forget. I'm so proud of her. I'm proud of me too. I think I've changed a lot since she's gone and this year I've delved deeper into so many people's lives I've seen their fears and aspirations, and I realize that they are almost the exact same as me. I love so many people in our school. They're brilliant. They're amazing. I’ve made so many unexpected friends in high school. Freshman year I thought these people were horrible. I'm not going to lie. They were different and I didn't like them. Now, they've changed. I've changed. I'm not really sure what I’m saying... but when I get discouraged in human beings, and think that we're all going downhill, I remember these moments. I remember these people and how different and unique they are. Everyone I'm friends with has a good heart. I'm just...really thankful. I can't wait to meet more people. I can't wait to just jump into life and see more. Life has so many secrets. I feel as if I haven't even scratched the surface yet. I didn't even understand much at all before this year. I'd go to bed restless feeling as if I'd done nothing. Now, each night I go to bed exhausted. I do so many things now and am constantly busy. I'm enjoying it all so much now. When I close my eyes, I smile and maybe even giggle once in a while. I used to be afraid that I wouldn't wake up the next morning, but now...it wouldn't really matter. Just with 16 years of living...I've done so much. I'm extremely thankful. I've been to so many places. I've met so many people. I've done so many things. If I died tonight, it wouldn't be so bad. I want to keep going more than ever now though. Even though I'm not prepared, I want to follow my dreams. I want to strive for my goals. I want to make movies. I want to write books. I want to make kid's laugh. I want to have a family. I want to have a big family. I want to be with Crystal forever. I want to travel the world with everyone I love. I want to buy my parents something amazing. I want to do so many things. I can't wait. Life is....so incredibly beautiful.”
ReplyDeleteEverything above is what I feel deep down. If I were to die tonight, I’d truly believe that my life was a success so far. Some days I may be depressed, and the constant fighting in my house may get me down, but overall, I am happy. Happiness is the one thing I never want to lose. To live my life and never be truly unhappy would be a success.
KTG: I read your post, and you changed my perspective in this success assignment. I love your positive personality, and how even if reality has all of its downfalls, you still look beyond them and laugh it all off. A successful life indeed is living and learning, and just, growing as a stronger person. I wrote about the latter two, but in this assignment, I somehow forgot about the living part. You're right, even living is a mere success as you push do, in fact, have to push yourself in all situations, no matter how rigorous, and gruesome. To have a successful life, you just have to kick the shit out of the day, seize it, and make it your own. I love how it seems as if you have complete control of your life, as in you don't let 'fate lead you to your destination'. A lot of people can't do that, but you can. Love you lots for it! :D
ReplyDeleteTeh-Pay-Taylor-Palm: I agree with you on that people shouldn't overlook the little successful of quintessential life. People in general like to look at the grand size of things and like to make bigger goals for themselves. But, I definitely have to disagree with this: "I don’t know about you, but I’d rather succeed in something small everyday then set an unreachable future goal that I may someday fail at so that I end up overlooking my small successes in the mean time."
I believe that nearly all goals are possible somehow and someway (even scientifically too. We just don't know answers to them yet). Conquering small goals is, of course, wonderful.. But I think that sometimes, one truly needs to push themselves harder than they usually push because even pushing yourself to try for such a gruesome goal is even large feat. That's why I absolutely love Bunje; she makes us uncomfortable when we've settled in for a comfort zone. Doing something such as that, makes all stronger writers and even stronger people in general. Like I've said in my previous blogs, failure should motivate us. Giving up is one of my biggest pet peeves, and every single person on this Blog has the potential to do whatever they want, as long as they put their mind to it.
Manar: Hey! I'm Bella, by the way. I know I've already introduced myself but, I haven't gotten to talk to you much, so here it goes! :D
I absolutely loved your thought that success is a personal thought. I wrote the same thing, and you're absolutely right because nobody in this world can measure anyone's success. Who are they to judge? Grading (... Numbers in general!) is the reason why so many people aren't happy with themselves in life. All of this is because they're too worried about getting judged by others like, "Oh no, I got a 79. I'm not smart enough," or "I'm only earning $40,000 annually. That's not enough, and I'm not a success to my family."
This whole grading rubric that we must live with for the rest of our lives is what drives so many people nuts. They often overlook the beauty in the things they actually do accomplish and are successful in.
Success can not be put in a box. It can not be explained in one sentence because it is not that cut and dry. Each person has a different perception of success, whether it involves money, doing what we love, our impact on the world, or the family we create. My idea of success embodies all of those aspects.
ReplyDeleteSome people say that money isn’t everything, and I agree. But money IS something. In order to survive in the world today, you need money. You need it to pay your bills, buy your food, your clothes, and other necessities of life. When I grow up though, I do not want to merely be “scrapping by”. In order for me to see myself as successful, I want to have the money so that I can do the things I want to do.
If I end up sitting in a cubicle depressed every day of my life, I will have been unsuccessful. I don’t care how much money I would be making in that cubicle, because if you hate life, what is the use of having that money. I want to be traveling the world, seeing amazing things, meeting great people, and constantly learning. My idea of success involves finding a career that encompasses all of those aspects. I want to love what I do, and into work everyday know that I will have made a difference not only with myself, but with the world around me.
When I am old and looking back on the things I accomplished in life, I want it to include having raised happy and healthy kids. In order for me to feel like I have been successful in life, I think it’s vital to have provided the world with a few more great people. I want to have a family like the one I have now. I want to give my children the opportunities my parents have given me and let them lead successful lives just like I intend to.
When I am sitting in my rocking chair, thinking about my life, I want to be able to say “I am proud of the life that I have lived.” If I can say that, I have really been successful.
The success I have been talking about, success in life as a whole is not the only type of success I want to accomplish. I think that you can be successful everyday. My idea of a successful day is one that involves me having learned something. Whether I learned it through a good or bad experience, it is always good to learn something new. Overall I believe that success comes from always learning, always experiencing new things, and having the ability to be proud of what you've done.
When my brother went through high school, he had a few things he was really good at. He is currently fluent in four languages (Latin, Greek, German, and English, in case anyone was wondering) and is a very personable, outgoing person. When it came to math or science in high school, he was at a total loss and eventually just stopped caring. He graduated number nine in his class by specializing in a few subjects (and getting a 5 on the Lang exam). I am the opposite of my brother. I am pretty good at many things, but not amazing at any one thing. I seem to always get pretty high grades in English, Math, Science, and History without getting crazily obsessive over them like he would. So what does this have to do with success? To him, success is winning and nothing else. He wants to take whatever he’s good at and run with it, becoming a master at that subject and being able to be better than everyone else (and rub it in their faces). For me, success is more than just winning. To me, success is the growth that takes place on the road to happiness.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t always have that perspective, though. When I was little, I always wanted to be better than everyone else. To me, then, success was winning. If I wasn’t winning, I wasn’t happy, and I would drive myself crazy making myself win. Then came high school. For the first two years of high school, I lost that drive completely. Then, I really didn’t care that much about success either way. This year, however, I’ve come to two realizations. The most important one was that obsessing over being the best was not going to make me the best. The other was that not caring at all was the dumbest thing I could have ever done.
So what is the best way to go about learning? It’s pretty simple, actually. Learn the right way. I used to be one of those people that would go crazy memorizing things before tests just so I could get perfect scores on them and then go forget them three hours later. Now, I realize that actually learning is the best way to do things. My thirst for knowledge has finally returned, and now I realize that wanting to learn leads to victory. Growing each day and getting better from both successes and failures makes me a better person. That’s not to say winning plays no part, though. If I failed all the time, I wouldn’t get anywhere and my good habits would slowly fade away. The positive reinforcement of getting good grades occasionally helps me continue my good habits.
ReplyDeleteWhat I’ve mentioned so far only pertains to school, though. In life, “success” means absolutely nothing. I would so much rather be that person who makes average money but has a wonderful family and is totally fulfilled than that person who is rich and hates the world. As long as a person has what he needs to survive, there is no more need for material things. Today in class we talked about the happy, whistling homeless man and whether or not he was successful. I think I would rather be that homeless man than the rich man I mentioned before. Success has more to do with happiness and growth than with actual material gain. I guess you could say success is a feeling inside each of us and nothing more.
And that brings me to my final point. Ultimately, success is whatever I am, whatever I turn out to be. If I will never be happy with what happens to me, there is no point in living. Whether I do extremely well in life or end up on the streets, I need to be able to look myself in the mirror and love who I am. That’s why overbearing parents are such a problem. A parent who asks the other what they want their child to be like is missing the point. Wanting a child to be a sports superstar is stupid, because if they don’t end up being one that child will end up hating life for their entire existence. Success is being able to accept who we are and fulfill our own personal goals and needs. No outside influences, money or otherwise, should change who we are inside. If that means that the happy homeless man is fulfilled, so be it. As long as we are totally at peace with ourselves, we have succeeded.
My definition of success is achieving something you wanted to achieve
ReplyDeleteand doing it the right way. For example, with soccer I wanted to win
best offensive player. The whole season I focused on that and worked
my butt off to deserve it. I didn’t go about it the wrong way, like
taking the ball from my teammates and trying to score the most goals.
I did it by playing my hardest and following the rules, therefore I was
successful.
I believe the hallmarks of success are judged by happiness.
You could have all the money in the world. You could own everything
you’ve ever dreamed of - a giant beach front house in California
and Jamaica with 10 of the hottest cars in front of each with your
own private jet to fly you back and forth between the two whenever
your heart desired. But if you earned these possessions the wrong way,
such as cheating or stealing, you may think you are happy and successful
but really deep down in your heart, you are not. And why should you be?
You cheated your way to the top. You didn’t earn all that you have. The
only thing you are successful at is fooling other people to think you are
successful. Once you realize that, you can not be happy with your life,
therefore you are not successful. You can judge whether or not you are
successful by the amount of effort you really put into achieving something
and how you achieved it. If you worked really hard, say for an award in soccer,
and you achieved it the right way then you're successful. However, if you
just slacked off all season and sucked up to the coach for the award, you're
not really successful.
The different levels of success come one after another. For example, one year
I might want best offensive player and after I accomplish that I reach for the
next best thing- it could be MVP. Once I've gotten that I'll shoot for something
else. It never really stops because there is always something better that you
can be. These things are only as important as you make them, however. If you
are satisfied and happy with just best offensive player, then good for you and
you are a success because you got what you wanted (the right way). To feel
successful all you have to do is achieve what you want to achieve. If you want
to be manager at McDonalds and you work your butt off to get it, then you're just
as successful as the inventor of the latest computer program. Sure, they may
make more money, but you're equally as happy and that is all that matters. If you're
not happy with the small paycheck you get, then reach for something higher and
succeed in that instead. Either way, you can be successful once you accomplish
what you want.
Personally, to see myself as a success I want to graduate college and end up with
a good paying job and a wonderful family. I don't need to be president of some
company. There's no point in that because that is not what will make me happy. Also,
I want to get onto a soccer team in college and get MVP of next year's Oak soccer
team. If all of these things are completed at some time in my life then I will see
myself as a success.
i dont know why it showed up like that its all spaced out weird sorrryyy
ReplyDeleteBella:
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that success is a perpetually changing thing. To have something like a relationship always stay exactly the same is just weird to think about. I would hate to live a life where everything stayed exactly the same. We all need change sometimes. Sometimes success comes from being able to cope with these changes.
Jessie B:
ReplyDeleteHave I ever mentioned that you're an amazing writer? I like being able to read something and not once having to stop because the bad grammar in the sentence threw me off. As for what you actually said, I agree that success is basically a person's satisfaction with what they have achieved and how they got there. I liked the riding example, too.
Jourdan:
ReplyDeleteWe think the same thing quite often, don't we? You're just better at putting it in writing than I am. I really liked the placekicker example. Although it would be absolutely devastating to have his dreams torn away like that, the greatest success would be in being able to make a better life for himself afterwards and be happy.
Stephanie,
ReplyDelete“Success is when someone wants to do something, puts the work in, and than accomplishes that specific thing. You can be successful in a variety of things as long as it is what you wanted and set out to do.”
While this proves true, people do get lucky sometimes. Trust fund babies for example, they were born with fortune on their side. They don’t need to work a day in their lives, but they are successful, especially if they use that money to find happiness and travel and love life and stuff. Sure they were born with some helpful tools to make life easy, but does that change their success? Also, sometimes people succeed at things they don’t always anticipate. A perfect example of this, although it’s not real life, it’s just the first example I thought of, in Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants, Carmen wanted stage crew but she ended up getting the lead. She didn’t expect to get the lead and it certainly wasn’t what she set out to accomplish, but she definitely succeeded!
Manar,
“I also don't believe a teacher can tell you if you were successful or not because that's a personal fight you have with yourself.”
First off, Hiya! Welcome to the blog! Sorry if I’ve given you any “Who’s she?” looks because I’ve seen you walk into Bunje’s a lot lately after my class and haven’t recognized you. Haha, but now I know why you’re there! Anywho, I agree with this statement 100%. Despite the fact grades are super important, I despise the grading system that teachers are forced to use. I don’t think a number can accurately define our progression. They create unnecessary competition and can make you feel terrible about yourself. Basically, as Bon Qui says, “Needs to go.”
Dearest Hannah (sp?),
“And why should you be? You cheated your way to the top. You didn’t earn all that you have.”
We talked about this today in class and honestly, I think if someone is ok with what they’ve done to get to where they’re at then they are successful. People cheat on tests to succeed, people of the working world back stab their competitors to succeed, lots of people bribe their way to the top to suceed. To everyone else, sure these things aren’t right at all, but to those people, they did what they had to and if that means getting what they want, then they’ll sleep just fine at night. (sp?)
Success, to me, comes hand in hand with happiness. If you are successful, you are happy; if you are happy, you are successful. What I mean is that success may come in the form of love, money, promotions, gifts… anything, but in any form it makes one happy. Success may not always be a big bang and projected as the Moment of the Day, but it happens with every smile, as slight as they may come.
ReplyDeleteA successful person must be happy, as I’ve explained. I see angry businessmen and women roam around because they have to, regardless of the reason why and to me that’s not being successful. They may own the biggest and wealthiest business in the world, but they aren’t successful until they’re happy. As an unhappy successful being, the negative attitude cancels out all success.
Let’s take Tiger Woods and Jon Gosselin (my mistake and choosing two cheaters by accident) and their “success”. So Tiger’s rich and skilled and loved, Jon is wealthy and loved by some – they’re not happy though. Money cannot buy happiness therefore it cannot create success.
There are not different levels of success in my book because happiness is happiness. There are cases where other things make one happier than others, but whatever the case there’s fulfillment in that category. Happiness, like I said, comes in many different forms which brings along success… one may cherish love more than money, or vice versa. One may cherish their job and workplace and becoming better and better at that may influence happiness and success.
A successful person must be happy, as I’ve explained. I see angry businessmen and women roam around because they have to, regardless of the reason why and to me that’s not being successful. They may own the biggest and wealthiest business in the world, but they aren’t successful until they’re happy. As an unhappy successful being, the negative attitude cancels out all success.
Let’s take Tiger Woods and Jon Gosselin (my mistake and choosing two cheaters by accident) and their “success”. So Tiger’s rich and skilled and loved, Jon is wealthy and loved by some – they’re not happy though. Money cannot buy happiness therefore it cannot create success.
There are not different levels of success in my book because happiness is happiness. There are cases where other things make one happier than others, but whatever the case there’s fulfillment in that category. Happiness, like I said, comes in many different forms which brings along success… one may cherish love more than money, or vice versa. One may cherish their job and workplace and becoming better and better at that may influence happiness and success.
In order to see oneself as a success, overall appreciation for that person is called for. To consider myself successful, I want to make sure I’m not pushing people away and what I’m doing is being noticed. That outlook is malleable to all the forms in which success may come as well. Seeing I am appreciated, I become happy. Being happy makes me successful because I, as I’m sure most other people, would rather be happy than sad any day.
Confusing myself a little, I want to make sure it’s clear that appreciation of one’s actions leads to happiness which then leads to a sense of success to that one person. Characteristics of success are different for everyone because one certain thing may not even appeal to one as it does the other. I guess in the sense of levels, success without happiness is the bottom and it’s completely fake. With happiness, success flows into one’s life quite easily and remains remarkably bright. Whether it be love, money, gifts or a step higher on the work ladder, success comes in subtle and intense ways because of the great feeling of happiness.
In order to see oneself as a success, overall appreciation for that person is called for. To consider myself successful, I want to make sure I’m not pushing people away and what I’m doing is being noticed. That outlook is malleable to all the forms in which success may come as well. Seeing I am appreciated, I become happy. Being happy makes me successful because I, as I’m sure most other people, would rather be happy than sad any day.
ReplyDeleteConfusing myself a little, I want to make sure it’s clear that appreciation of one’s actions leads to happiness which then leads to a sense of success to that one person. Characteristics of success are different for everyone because one certain thing may not even appeal to one as it does the other. I guess in the sense of levels, success without happiness is the bottom and it’s completely fake. With happiness, success flows into one’s life quite easily and remains remarkably bright. Whether it be love, money, gifts or a step higher on the work ladder, success comes in subtle and intense ways because of the great feeling of happiness.
Success is fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteEspecially in this time of massive communication with all our convenient media outlets, people's minds have been manipulated into believing in certain things that may not be necessarily correct. So with the idea of success, everybody's perceptions are shaped by outside factors. The media promotes, among other things, materialism as a sign of success. The school system has established that labels dominate a student's level of success: A's on report cards, 5s on AP tests, a Varsity Scholar Award. Parents have instilled in their children the image of success based on their own views, such as, going to a prestige college, working a well-paying job, etc. And then there are even peers, whose own achievements influence the minds of others. The mind is like play-dough: from every which way, it is twisted, turned, and transformed into a person who tends to follow the opinions of others.
Yet, there is will. And with a person's will, they have the choice of how far they will let these outside factors affect their views. There are no two people who live the same exact life and have the same exact beliefs. People may share certain aspects of their views on life with another person, but the overall culmination of a person's life is unique. Thus, everyone--yes, everyone-- has their own unique view of success because each person is influenced in different ways. For instance, certain hard-core, cut-throat students believe that success is perfect--All A's, a 105 GPA, 5's on all their AP tests. Other competitive sports players believe that success is winning and failure is losing. More liberal people believe that success is the climb; it's the growth in knowing that you've tried your hardest even if you do not win. More jubilant individuals believe that the success is merely being happy.
So no matter what a person's image of success is, as long as they are fulfilled, success has occurred. It's all in a person's individualized perspective. If a person believes that labels like an A+ indicate success, and they receive a B, then they do not see themselves as successful. And if a person doesn't believe they are successful, they are not fulfilled. Without being fulfilled, a person is not successful because, if he or she cannot convince themselves that they are successful, then the beautiful effects of success can not be enjoyed. There is no success unless YOU believe that you have succeeded.
Personally, my view of success involves a near maximum amount of effort. As long as I try everything to the fullest, I am successful. If my blood, sweat, tears (as well as my heart and soul) are into achieving a goal, then I am successful. And coincidentally, effort usually ends with a desired outcome. So if something comes out of my efforts…well that's just a beneficial label that follows in the path where I put my efforts in. To illustrate, in Mario: As long as you put tons of effort into moving, I believe that it doesn't matter whether you happen to come across a gold coin or not. But if you happened to pick up one, good for you! Also, if you know a gold coin is coming up, you better pick it up, but if you don't it is a-okay!
But then again, that is my own individual perspective on success. Other people have their own views of success. Still, success is only reach as you believe it is reached! =)
Deanna:
ReplyDelete(Hmm, I don’t think I’ve commented on your blog before…weird? But anyway..) “1) He/She doesn’t complain (I believe complaining takes away from the learning process by inducing stupidity),” I’m firmly committed to the fact that anybody can become an AP student. Not the label “AP student”, but a serious, hard-working, study-crazy AP student. Even the person who is rank 400 can become an AP student as long as they focus and work-hard and maintain a positive attitude. That’s why I HATE it when I hear complaining like “I’m never going to use this!” or “I give up; I’m not doing this” or “I’m failing her class because she sucks at teaching.” Then they give up trying all together and that leads to certain death. So I whole-heartedly agree that no complaining goes together with success. Sure, people can complain all they want about how Mrs. Baird teaches to the floor, but if they actually listen, they can success in Calculus. It’s not Mrs. Baird, it’s you (the complainer. Not you Deanna, haha) =)
Jourdan:
Overall, I loved your blog. But the very last sentence confused me. When I got to it, I must have reread it twenty times before deciding that it’s not a very logical statement. If there is no definition for success, how you can you find it all around? How can you find something that does not exist? I somewhat understand what you’re saying: You cannot define what success is (as if how to get it, what are the aspects that allow you to be labeled ‘successful’, what can you do to be successful, etc). But you see, all around you, people becoming successful, peopling acting successfully, etc. I understand what you’re saying, and maybe I’m wrong, but I think that the way you worded it is illogical.
Success is not winning or losing. For me success is a combination of endurance and happiness. It is being able to face the good and bad times while still holding on to a bit of a positive attitude. A person who never gives up on their goals and doesn’t let life depress them forever would seem like a successful person to me. My definition of success comes from this one older woman that I’ve known pretty much my whole life. She’s had some really hard times in life but she keeps going and she doesn’t treat life like a chore. She treats it like a blessing and you can just tell that she’s a happy person. She has gone after her goals and whether she achieved them or not they have brought her wisdom. When I see her I see success. She walks around greeting various people with a smile and the fact that she can hold onto that happiness after all the difficulties that life has thrown at her prove to me that she’s successful. Material objects in no way measure success. Just because a person is poor or rich or owns this and that does not mean they are successful. Anyone can be successful no matter where they come from or what their background is. It just depends on the effort they put into life. If they experience a few bad events in life and give up on their dreams and being truly happy than no I don’t think they’re a success.
ReplyDeleteJV:
ReplyDeleteYour little metaphor “Passion is like the fuel that keeps the train going, while determination is what keeps it on the track” made me smile! I can just see it as a huge inspirational poster with a giant steamy train in the background. But anyway, I kind of disagree with you when you say “I don’t find it too successful when I reach my goal and feel only content or satisfactory. Those words, to me, are just pathetic excuses for hustling your way to what you’ve planned to achieve.” What about the EXTREMELY high goals? Say climbing to the top of Mt. Everest… how can you go beyond the top of a mountain? Fly to heaven!? Hahaha. Sometimes, as long as your goal is high enough, I don’t see why it’s not reaching a goal is, in your mind, a pathetic excuse? Can’t you
just keep setting more goals that stem from the original goal… Anyway, it’s nice how you can make your blog nice and short and say all you need to say.
There are some things that people will give up on but the things that matter to that person are the things that they should never give up on. There may be minor levels of success but nothing very dramatic. The only thing that really changes the level of success between people is the ability of one to keep moving forward. If a person accomplishes their goals but they still do not feel as quite happy with life as they would like to than they are still successful but not as successful as the person who is completely happy with their life and themselves. In order for me to feel successful I need to keep some kind of positive attitude no matter what. I never want to wake up and feel like my life is a boring routine that is more annoying than good. There are a few goals that I never want to lose sight of whether I complete them or not. As long as I try to reach them and I don’t give up then I’ll feel successful. I want to see the world but if I can only see part of it then I’ll be okay with that as long as I’m happy. If I could ever be even half as happy and enduring and inspirational as the older woman I mentioned earlier than I would truly consider myself to be successful in every aspect of the word.
ReplyDeleteSarah L: I love how you used a balance beam as an example because it’s so true. After reading you’re blog I realized that it’s true, balance is really important. Whenever I feel like I can’t balance everything it completely destroys my personality and I start to cling more to worries rather than my goals. But I think I just need to learn how to balance everything and it will help put me back together when I feel like things are falling apart. Whether we are successful or not completely depends on us and the decisions we make each day.
ReplyDeleteJessie: “But if we’re able to, at the end of the day, step back and feel satisfied with our accomplishments and overall effort, we have certainly achieved success.”
This is so true! How successful we are depends on our satisfaction with where we are in life. Just as you compared the grandprix and backyard riders, they are both successful because they are at the level that they are comfortable with. It’s the same in life, if you are satisfied and happy with where you are at and not where others tell you that you should be than you are successful.
KTG: Your positive attitude is amazing! You’ve got such a great outlook on life and your definition of success is really good. Your ability to see every day as a success no matter where it goes is awesome. You seem like you’ll make the best out of any situation that life hands you. I think you are successful after reading your blog. :)
Megan S - I love that you defended lunch ladies, as weird as that sounds. I hate when people bust on janitors at Oakcrest simply because of their job. They honestly don't get how much money comes from that even and I think it's a reasonable job. Like you said, don't just others.. you don't know their story. Love it!
ReplyDeleteJV - I fully agree with your relation of success and passion. You succeeded in your play because of your strong passion and honestly, I think you'll make it every step of the way in the fashion industry because of your passion, love!
Manar - I have to first comment on the fact that you're the star of the blog! But also, I loved reading yours. From the addition of your mom's view and on, I feel like you read my first instinct of success. I feel like the standards of colleges are only focused on the money part of success in later years and never happiness. But hey, money may bring happiness!
Success can be as small as finding a dollar on the street corner, or as big as becoming a millionaire, but not all of the people who do this are successful.
ReplyDeleteThe senses of pride and accomplishment are what make success, along with the happiness that follows. With a positive outlook on life, the grade on the top of a paper doesn't differentiate the labels of success and failure. If a student had put one hundred percent effort into the work that he or she has done but doesn't reach the grade of a 5 on an ap exam, he is still successful in my eyes. Either way, he has walked out of the course with more knowledge than before he entered, and to me, that is success.
Lately, I have realized that I'm very unsuccessful. I've been falling behind on schoolwork in several classes, and sadly, my lack of desire is overwhelming me. Something has changed, and I'm not sure what it is. I'm not where I want to be in life, by any means. I've found many flaws that I can change, and I'm gradually working on fixing them. Just a few days ago, I sat down with a friend in Calculus and we talked about goals we were going to achieve. We realized that we need to take initiative and work hard to be where we want in life. When I've reached the goals I set, or try my hardest to do so, I will see myself as a success. Right now, I know that I'm capable of doing much better than I demonstrate.
In order for anyone to be successful, they must start out with a goal they want to achieve. Goals are the greatest senses of accomplishment which lead to success. Anyone can be successful if they put forward the dedication and effort that it takes.
Sarah L- I can't believe how much I feel exactly what you are talking about in your blog. Not that I don't usually understand what you say, but your words described the way I've feeling lately. I've been feeling unusually different than I know myself to be, and I don't know what it is. I completely agree with the domino effect as well, though I usually say, "Let things go." I've been very contradictory lately, because somehow, recently I've found that I can't. I'm thinking that the break will give me time to gather myself and start the new year fresh. :)
ReplyDeleteBrittany O.- “There are some things that people will give up on but the things that matter to that person are the things that they should never give up on.”
ReplyDeleteThis statement stuck out to me while reading your blog. I believe your blog was well expressed in the thought of not being a success. If a person gives up they are not a success. I agree one hundred percent that success is not always about winning or losing. Yet, it befuddles me how most people build their life off of winning and losing. (Which I guess I sometimes do too.) For the statement above, people tend give up before truly realizing what they missed. When you give up on the things that gave up on you, you have ultimately failed.
Each what seems to be insignificant opportunity can be the beginning to a sublime success. Each rung is a progression in your climb up the corporate-like latter. Each step, gets you closer to your goal. Each trip and fall along the way won’t disrupt the intensity of your steady pattern. Looking up, you see no top to the latter, only clouds spattered across the crystal sky.
ReplyDeleteSuccess is reaching each step on this latter. While the step you mount to, probably wont be the top step, it will help you get there. This blog reminds me of a discussion we had in class a few months ago, and by reading everyone’s blogs, its obvious that we all grew and have different perspectives than we did back then. However, mine seems to remain the same in that I don’t believe there is a such thing as success in life. There are goals, and there is a point of reaching goals. But since that goal is never your final goal, it cannot be success. Success is when, on your deathbed you can say that you led a good life and accomplished everything that you could to be happy. Success is when you feel as if you did the best for yourself, you worked harder than you thought and you accomplished every goal in order for happiness; isn’t that the point of life anyway? At that point, I can say, you’ve finally reached the top of that corporate-like latter and have been a successful person. Sorry Drake, but success isn’t about money, car, clothes, or hoes. Success is about reaching happiness. To see yourself as successful, you must accomplish all your goals. Climb each step feeling haughty and brave, because sometimes it takes a little longer to get to that step.. Sometimes you can put your everything into something that gives you nothing in return. That’s when you need to overcome the obstacles, because I can promise any of you that you’re above whatever that obstacle may be. Success is immeasurable by goals or job promotions or even family. Success is solely measurable by what made you happy. In my old age, I want to be able to look at the dark sky, wish on a star, and still believe that the wish will come true! Because that makes me happy. In my old age, I want to be able to make brownie mix for two dozen brownies and end up only having one dozen baked. Because that makes me happy. In my old age, I want to be able to make eye contact with a stranger and smile at each other just to feel that warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. Because that makes me happy. I will be successful. I try to do everything in moderation, and fulfill each goal that seems to wander in the near distance of my ladder climb. And when I look up to see no top to the latter, I hope its night time.. Just so I can wish on a star. It makes me happy.
Lucas:
ReplyDelete"Success is being able to accept who we are and fulfill our own personal goals and needs. No outside influences, money or otherwise, should change who we are inside. If that means that the happy homeless man is fulfilled, so be it. As long as we are totally at peace with ourselves, we have succeeded."
Though I believe success isn't defined by money, grades, or luxuries, do you really think it is possible for someone alone in the cold with no love, food, or shelter can truly be happy? Or do you think they've given up and come to terms with the belief that they are useless? I guess this is really a hypothetical question because there is no way of knowing unless you go up and ask him yourself but I think that in that case, the homeless person is quite the opposite of successful, even if he is content.
Kristen D. –“ With a positive outlook on life, the grade on the top of a paper doesn't differentiate the labels of success and failure.”
ReplyDeleteNot only did this happen today but it has been happening all year. Everyday all of us have been getting grades back that do not reflect our capabilities. At first we all tried hard and were successful, but you are right, lately there has been no motivation. The only thing keeping us going is knowing that in six months we will be out of this place. Just take one thing at a time, that is what I am trying to do and so far it has been working out. Try not to stress because odds are you will feel accomplished and successful at the end of the year when we make it out alive!
Kristen:
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a ridiculous situation. I guess it was just meant to prove a point, but... you said he is content. However, I think the fact that he was whistling would show that he was more than just content. If he was truly happy, not just content, then he would be a success.
Alexis:
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about Uroosa's statement. I described success as being happy with what you have as well, but now that I think about it, the most successful people I know are always looking to approve. If you always want to improve, it shows that you aren't satisfied, which makes me think deeply about ever truly being successful. Wow.. I'm going to go think some more.
Lucas:
ReplyDeleteHmm.. yeah I suppose you are right. Though I can't help but question his motivations in life. I feel like happiness could only come from some intense drug use that caused him to lose his ability to think clearly about his life..
Kelsey: Hahah thanks kels :) Yeah everything has been coming down to lack of motivation... it's horrible.
JV: Your view on success must be rewarding every day :) because everyday something is accomplished, and that's such an amazing way to see it. You are going to be way more successful than I think you expect.
ReplyDeleteKristie:"I guess in the sense of levels, success without happiness is the bottom and it’s completely fake." Pure genius! This line makes all the sense in the world to me. I am a firm believer that everyone's goal in life is to be happy, but I never saw it as being not real without happiness. I'm glad you pointed that out.
Kristen: Your blog got rid of 10lbs of weight from my shoulders. I'm glad I'm not alone in this feeling of being overwhelmed and loss in desire. Only in the past two days, have I got my priorities back on track, and I hope you're able to do the same. Either way, through my ideals, I know you will be successful in everything. :)
Alix- “When I am sitting in my rocking chair, thinking about my life, I want to be able to say “I am proud of the life that I have lived.” If I can say that, I have really been successful.”
ReplyDeleteLet me start out by saying that I could totally picture you sitting in a mental hospital rocking chair thinking something like this. (kidding). I do agree with the statement. I have always wondered about life when I am older and how it will turn out. Will I be successful and accomplish the dreams I’ve set since I was younger? It is weird think about but next year we will be choosing a college and make the first decisions on our future. If life doesn’t turn out the way you planned, try to remember all of the little successes you had throughout life, I know there will be a million!
Paola: You definitely aren't alone. I know sooo many people that feel this way, but for me, it's upsetting me. I feel like something has changed, and I hope I can find the strength to make everything the way it once was.
ReplyDeleteKale: Thanks so much for your lovely comment. I like how you see things in me that I do not see in myself. The fact that I try harder when things get harder is true, now that I think about it. I try so hard in Chemistry even though I fail a test or, or five...LOL.
ReplyDeleteThanks for seeing the best in me. I love you too.
Taylor- While I normally do agree with you, I disagree with the comment you left me. My definition is only part of success. I understand that. However, trust fund babies are not successful just because they are given money and neither is the girl who gets the role that she was expecting. Both of them still have to work to be successful, either in life by doing well in school or by learning the lines to do well in the play.
Kristen: i feel the same exact way. :/ and I promise that you will.
ReplyDeleteLike I have previously stated, I don’t believe that I can deem myself successful for a long period of time. We want… That’s what makes us human. Our desire to be better. Our desire to have everything. So as soon as we make it to that esteemed position of honor or success, of which we have always dreamed of, we begin to plan. Plan on obtaining yet another higher and more unachievable goal. We are never successful for long.
ReplyDeleteYet, we all still have a temporary opinion regarding the definition of “successful”. At this moment, as I type away, eating Jalapeño Pringles, and listening to sappy “chick” music, my definition of success is a beyond intelligent student (an overall GPA of 4.25 wouldn’t hurt either), a perfect daughter, and an over-all lovable person.
Simply put, right? Yet, not that simple to obtainable. I have been trying for 16 years, 11 months, 17 days, and 19 hours. And I’m still not there.
Or a day to day basis, I measure my success by my small achievements.
“Did I get a 90 on that quiz or a 9? Did I make new friends? Have I upset my parents today? What are people saying about me? Did I look good today or did I look like a hobo?”
Yes, these little achievements are shallow. In fact, VERY shallow. Yet that’s what’s important to me as I roam the halls of our beautiful school.. Just put a blond wig on me, and call me “BARBIE”.
Don’t get me wrong though. That’s not all I associate with success. If you thought I was THAT shallow, well shame on you. That’s just my requirements for a short term successful state, at least in High School. I have standards, you know?
Unlike people, I don’t associate money with success (I have no desire to be homeless, either). I think being successful in life, I mean “adult life”, is waking up and being happy. Happy with where you are in life. Happy that you woke up. However seeing as most humans are set upon being miserable, my definition of success usually isn’t in their fate.
Besides happiness, I associate honor with success. My reputation is very important to me. Yet again, I’m going to contradict myself. Though I believe that to be successful you need to be happy, I also believe that you have to be successful in other’s eyes. When I say “others”, I don’t mean “everyone”. When I say “others”, I mean the people who are most important to you. Therefore a mark on my reputation automatically makes me unsuccessful. In order to be successful I have to be that woman who people respected for her input. I have to be that woman that makes her parents proud. I have to be honorable.
In ten years, if I wake up, and realize that all my life I was pushed in this ONE direction, to my fate, to my happiness, I will be successful. In ten years, if I wake up and realize that life is good and I have a purpose, I will be successful. In ten years, if I wake up to realize that I’m what everyone expects me to be, I will be successful. That is my definition of long term success. (That was soooo grammatical incorrect, but the best way I could say what I had to say.)
Sorry for the confusion and contradictions. That’s life in my crazy mind :)
Success is defined, according to dictionary.com, as:
ReplyDelete1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
Maybe success can be defined as so, but it is arguable for sure. It really does vary from person to person. For example, to my mom, success is finding a new man to pretend to love and steal money from before her current boyfriend gets tired of her. To my older sister, success is finally running four miles a day without stopping. To my younger sister, success is nailing that tricky drop spin with her flag. And finally, to my dad, success is being able to provide for my sisters and I and to raise us to be wonderful people. But what is it to me?
It’s hard to say. I’m not going to go all “optimistic” on yo’ behind. At least, I’m going to try not to, although I very well could. Success is what you make it, in my opinion. Reaching your goals. Money is not success. That’s just gratification. An added bonus to some successes, if you will. Success would be releasing a chart-topping album, nailing that tough audition and therefore starring in that kick-ass movie, or even accomplishing a personal goal as small as finally getting the cojones enough to ask out the guy / girl that you like, no matter the answer.
All you need to be successful is a drive and determination to reach your goals, no matter how big or small. Nothing is impossible as long as you believe in yourself and as long as you set your mind to it (okay, I added a touch of optimism; it ain’t no thang!). If someone thinks that they are only ever going to be unsuccessful, they are just limiting themselves on what they can do. You can judge success once again not by the amount of wealth, but maybe by happiness. Someone who reaches a lot of their goals will at least be content with themselves. My success can be measured by happiness, but also you could measure it by my grades or other good things that I have accomplished. For me to see myself as a success, more than I may already view myself as, I need to drop a minute off of my erg time for crew. I need to pass my AP classes and their exams. I need to finally convince my younger sister that I am not a bitch like she tries to tell me and somehow get her to treat me like she actually loves me. Man, I’ve got a lot of work to do.
Comment 1:
ReplyDeleteTo Jordan:
Wow… that’s so right. Success is beating yourself not another opponent, that may or may not be qualified. I think people have begun to associate success with gain. Its not gain, just pure improvement. Being the best gives you monetary success, yet being the best YOU gives you mentally and spiritually success. It depends on which is more important to a person. Hmmm… I need to think about this more.
Comment 2
ReplyDeleteTo Kyra A.
I love your writing style. I mean, come-on, you had the cojones to actually use the word “cojones” in you r blog!! I respect your writing immensely. It always makes me laugh. Now, back to your blog. I was kind of trying to say exactly what you said. You said it better than I ever could have. Success is in the eyes of the beholder. It’s just a goal you set aside to be happy. :) By the way, I love your optimism. Don’t lose it.
P.S. I know you’ll reach your definition of success.
Comment 3 ( gotta go work on my P/A paper)
ReplyDeleteTo Kristen D:
It is commendable that you want to better yourself. I think that’s what we all have to do. Buckle down and say “Gosh darn it, I m going to be the best me possible!” That is the only way we can reach success. That is the only way we can make something of ourselves. It’s just wrong to let the fire inside of us dim and dye away. Its a sin in my mind.
Deanna: “I’m not just talking about “oh no! you’re not learning the chain rule!” I mean, you aren’t learning discipline, work ethic, motivation.”
ReplyDeleteI agree. Even though I’ll admit I basically gave up on listening to Mrs. Baird, you are one hundred percent right. I know that I need to try harder simply for those three things you listed there. People are too anti-success because they are too lazy to just do their work. You are the only one so far who has pointed that out!
Jourdan: “Beating a wheelchair-basketball team at soccer does not yield success.”
So true! You can always win every game, but you may not be successful as a team if you work together, and you can be successful if you rig it so you win on purpose. It’s not all about winning and losing!
Stephanie: I love your blog, and how you wrote out every piece of the success puzzle. You are so right with everything you say! I think you speak for a lot of people in your blog and I like that. Keep up the great writing! =]
awwh thanks roosa! =]
ReplyDeleteSuccess is the accomplishing of a goal in its entirety. A goal of losing 20 pounds isn’t met with success until all 20 pounds are lost, just like a goal to get an A in lang isn’t a success if an A is only attained on a few tests. Its all or nothing. A person who is successful has to have drive. She doesn’t need anything else when it all comes down to it. That desire and longing to reach her goal will make her do whatever it takes, organize, kiss ass, or work hard. Without drive, there is no forward motion, no progress.
ReplyDeleteMy success is non existant so far. By my definition, a goal must be accomplished completely to be a success. I have a horrible habit of setting very high goals, which isn’t too horrible, I guess, because I learn very much by working my ass off to reach them. But I’ve never technically been a success. I don’t let that perturb me though. I just keep in mind that I have gained experience and knowledge I didn’t have before, and that that will serve me well in the future.
I am speaking for myself and myself alone when I say that success has no levels. In the real world it certainly does, but for me I do not use the word “success” lightly. Thus when I am successful by my standards, it is a BIG deal. In the real world, there are cheaters (as Bunje pointed out). These cheaters set really low and typically stupid goals which any idiot could accomplish (or sometimes they just lack confidence), and of course they’ll be successful, but their success isn’t true rewarding success.
Material possessions don’t make success…all the time. They are more of a side-effect of success. To truly feel and be successful a person has to know in their heart of hearts that the goals they’ve set have been reached honestly. Even if everyone around this person believes she is a success, she knows if it’s the truth or not. And if she is a slimy liar-cheater face and lets everyone believe she reached her goals the right way, she knows she didn’t and it will eat away at her little by little. If it doesn’t, I’m sorry but she has no soul.
For me to see myself as a success, I have to reach one of my goals, which is rather unlikely to happen in the next ten years. I want to go to the Olympics. I want to live a life so I am happy as long as I’m not harming anyone. I want to be my own person, to be real and resist that urge to please everyone by changing who I am. This is just the top of my list, but as you can tell I won’t know if I’m successful at some of these things until Im old. But that doesn’t bother me because reaching all my goals tomorrow would A) require cheating and B) leave me with a pretty boring life after tomorrow.
Rob - "If I can make someone else’s life better, I have been successful."
ReplyDeleteThis really made me smile, Robby. :) It's a selfless and bold statement, and I feel the same way. It would be amazing to be someone like a historical figure or author and influence millions, but just knowing you've influenced or changed just one person's view means the world.
UROOOOOOOsa! (imagine me saying that like the wolf in the cookie crisp commercials) "In ten years, if I wake up, and realize that all my life I was pushed in this ONE direction, to my fate, to my happiness, I will be successful. In ten years, if I wake up and realize that life is good and I have a purpose, I will be successful. In ten years, if I wake up to realize that I’m what everyone expects me to be, I will be successful."
I'm not one who believe is fate and having a purpose. I think you're brilliant, Uroosa. You're hilarious and SO intelligent. I believe that you especially can do anything you set your mind to. I wish you'd look forward to being what you expect yourself to be instead of other people. You underestimate yourself. You choose your path and your destination. Don't let anyone else choose for you.
Paola "Success is reaching each step on this latter. While the step you mount to, probably wont be the top step, it will help you get there."
Yes! This is like what I was saying. Each day is a success because you're improving and growing. Even if you don't get to the top of the ladder, you sure as hell were a lot farther up than you were before!
I believe success is entirely based on one’s personal definition of success. A farmer who makes a significantly larger harvest this year is probably going to think he was a huge success while as an ignorant person may consider this farmer a failure based simply on his occupation. Success is all a matter of perception, what one strives for. Success need not be one set goal or a specific act, and inversely, success for one person may be entirely determined by a specific act or attained goal. Neither person is wrong, just peering through the looking glass at a different angle.
ReplyDeleteMy personal “success” is no one goal, no one attainable recognition or award per se. I have many ideas of attaining “success”. I am successful in Calculus if I do my best and really apply myself to learning the material, which has been a problem as of late. I am successful in band if I better my understanding of music, increase my musicality and ability. My different goals could all be aimed at success. To be successful at something, I believe one would need a goal, not only to define success for that particular challenge, but to keep track of a personally yearned for achievement. So in this sense, I have many definitions of success. Maybe getting a 5 on an AP exam is success for one while it’s just a number for others, again it all comes down to perspective. If a student is completely driven in a particular class, putting themselves entirely into the study and mastery of that subject, and strives to get a 5 on the AP exam, getting that 5 would be success in their eyes, not getting the grade would be failure. Not that they wouldn’t consider themselves successful in that particular course, but for that particular goal, that particular attainable distinction, they would not be successful.
To me, success is doing my absolute best, living up to my potential and making something out of these potentials. For a long time, I looked at success as the rest of the world does, being wealthy and successful in a particular area, that area garnering you economic and the ‘catholic definition’ of success. A few years ago I realized that society is partially wrong, in the sense that not everyone is driven my monetary success. I don’t need a huge paying job and an enormous house to be happy. As long as I am happy with where I am and honestly enraptured by the occupation I eventually come upon as the right one, I will consider myself successful. I agree, those books that advertise success are a little silly in the fact that not everyone will relate. However, those books are either not aimed at a certain success or appealing to only a certain group. I think their general ideas of success may be beneficial to most, a set of guidelines to be the best you can be for example. The books called Start Your Own Construction and Contracting Business: Your Step-by-step Guide to Success is obviously for the person who wants to be successful in construction, in which case this book (an actual book) would probably be very applicable to a method of success in the construction business. Again, it all comes down to perspective.
I think success is based on “the pursuit of happiness”. As long as I am happy doing whatever it is I decide to do and can truly appreciate the way I choose to live, I am successful.
Uroosa ---> "I think being successful in life, I mean “adult life”, is waking up and being happy. Happy with where you are in life. Happy that you woke up."
ReplyDeleteI F*CKING LOVE YOU! The entire time I was reading your blog I sat there nodding my head and agreeing. except when you talk about judging success on a day to day basis. but thats okay. I am told every day that being happy shouldn't be my goal in life. Guess what?! It is. And these people can get over it. If you aren;t happy with your life, why bother living. Its just a waste.
Today, Bunje – Hall asked us a question in class. She wanted to know who we thought was the most successful person we know and why. Just like JV, I too thought about Oprah almost instantly, but I wasn’t dumb enough to say it out aloud. ;]
ReplyDeleteHowever, when I truly got to thinking about whom I would name, I admit that I had a bit of trouble with it at first. I instantly thought of money, because money is commonly paired with success and famous success stories. But then I got to thinking, does having a lot of money, truly mean you’re successful? In my book, the answer is no. That money could be the earnings that you receive because of your success, but I don’t believe that money should be the only marker of just how successful you have become.
Anyway, after thinking about it for awhile, I finally arrived on my youngest sister, Ndinelago (More commonly known as Zizi). Now, as most of my friends know, Zizi was born with Erb’s Palsy due to a hospital mistake during her birth. One of her arms was pulled to hard and it broke her collar bone, tore the tendons around it, a ripped most of the nerves. In short, her left arm became paralyzed. Now from that point, my family was constantly told about all the things that she wouldn’t be able to do. She wouldn’t be able to play sports that required both hands properly, she could never learn to swim, tying her shoes would be damn near impossible and she would have to rely on people to help her on simple tasks for the rest of her life. I feel ashamed for even admitting it, but for I while, I seriously believed in all the things that the doctor was telling us. I mean, she could barely feel her arm. Once, she accidently left her fingers on a hot stove and felt nothing until we noticed that her hand was burning. Everyone could see that she had an arm, but when it came to actually using it, it was as if she was never even born with one.
However if you know Zizi, you know that she’s not the kind of child to give up on anything. She’s only nine years old, but I have yet to meet another person as successful as her. From the time she realized that she couldn’t do everything that she wanted to do, she started to work against it. When they told her that she wouldn’t be able to hold a fork in that hand, she forced herself to eat with that hand only until she learned to hold the fork by herself. Sometimes it took her hours to eat because she was so stubborn. When they put her in a body cast for a whole summer and required her to get physical therapy for a surgery she received to restore some function to her arm, she was only in the hospital for a fraction of the time because she pushed herself to heal faster. Two years ago, when they told her she couldn’t swim, she jumped into the pool and showed them that she had taught herself to swim without the full use of her other arm years ago. I’ve seen Zizi push herself to near exaustion just trying to do tasks that we do without thinking about it. Several times, she has failed, and there are some things that she still can’t do without assistance, but that doesn’t bother her because she knows that she’s tried her hardest. Even now, she has to deal with hospital visits and the awkward explanations to her fellow peers about why she sometimes can’t do things in gym, but in her eyes, and the eyes of my family, she is still a success.
Now, I don’t know if I explained this in a way where everyone can see what my definition if success is, but it’s pretty simple. To me, success is growth and pushing yourself to get better at something. For me to feel as if I’ve been successful at something, I need to know that I tried my hardest and did everything that I could to achieve it. Sometimes, I don’t get to what I was aiming for, but I’m perfectly content with that because I know that I tried so hard in the end. Nothing would bother me more than if I just gained something that I know I didn’t deserve without working for it. To me, success if the feeling of accomplishment that I have within myself, and the feeling of being content with what I have achieved whether or not I have actually won at something. I consider most of my life to be a success because I’ve been able to grow and mature with every experience that has come my way. At the end of my life, it doesn’t matter to me if I have a big mansion with 16 cars or if I’m living in an affordable 3-bedroom house with a dog and a grumpy-old husband. I only want the satisfaction of being able to look back and say “Dayuuummm, my life was good!” And when that day finally comes, I will know that I’ve been as successful as I always knew and dreamed I could be. :D
ReplyDelete“ Success, is not permanent,” this accusation about how success operates remains true to what I believe success really is in the long run . Every since, my geometry teacher Mr. Gazo read us this part of an intriguing quote I have from that day on believed this notation about what success is. Success, to me is defined as something we will never obtain. Of course, I believe that everyone in some way or another experiences success but it may only last for a couple seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years and then it will fade away. I believe success is being extremely content with one’s life. To clarify this further, I am generally speaking that you would not want to change one thing in your life and you wouldn’t acquire anything else to make your life more successful. It’s a rare percentage of Americans that can rightfully say that they are truly content with their lives at the current moment. Therefore, success may come but it never last for a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteSuccess is very subjective, so there are a variety of people that could be looked upon as successful. For instance, a CEO of a major engrossing company could be someone everyone looks upon as a man who is highly successful. On the other hand a guy who has a decent job but a happy home life with a bunch of kids can be seen as successful also. The people I perceive, as successful are ones who are entirely confident (not cocky) with themselves, content at their current state of life and not stressed from the immense pressures in any situation. The people I stated above in my viewpoint are not successful because each one probably desire for more in their life I also believe they are not successful because they probably grew up on the notation that their lifestyles are what make you successful. The CEO is not successful because he probably wishes that his 60 hours week days didn’t interfere with his social or family life. The family man is not successful because yes he may be happy about his loving wife and children, but most family man wish they were high class CEO’s providing for their family more. Therefore, success to me means feeling content I do not believe these individuals are successful. They are not content in their current lives; they in a sense like most Americans strive for a different life.
That’s why I believe that I am not a successful person, because at the current state of life I am at right now I am not content, confident and I would change several things. The way I view all the things that I have done in my life and overcome is what I referred to as achievements. In very minimum of these achievements I have had bouts of success. This may seem very confusing, so let me elaborate further. For starters, I am a cross country runner and many see me as I successful runner, but the truth is I do not feel as though I am a successful runner. I look my races as achievements, each race I finish is an achievement, it’s not success because nine of the ten times I finish the race and wish I could have ran faster, or beaten the person in front of me or gotten a better place. Yes, I finished the race, so shouldn’t that be a success? But to me it’s not it’s just an achievement because in my heart I knew I could have been more successful with my race. I also was in the top 7 this year but I don’t look at that as a success because you see I wish I was in the top 5 this year. Success to me is rare, every once and a blue moon I finish a race and I wouldn’t change one thing I did during the race. That right there defines success to me. Therefore, I am not a successful runner but I have made wonderful achievements as a runner.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteIn today’s society, we grow up on our parents teaching us what success looks like. For some they learn that success is being financial wealthy with pricey items to show off for it, others learn that love is the answer to success starting a family and doing things you love in life are where you will most likely be successful. Yes, in the public eye that is what success looks like but to me I think we strive so hard to get either one of those ends when we never actually follow what we want to do. Since society or are parents model those ideas of success that is what we strive to achieve. When we get there I feel we aren’t happy, content, confident or anything of the attributes I feel describe success. What success should be modeled as in society is waking up each and every day knowing that you made the right choice and you are content wouldn’t change a thing on how you live your life. I feel some people may have this but majority including myself will never experience this because there is always something better out there something new to do.
In my opinion I guess there are different levels of success, but it’s not such much on what your career or what you achieved. The levels I determine success on is if you are truly happy with yourself, where you are in life and you wouldn’t change a thing. Some people are on the lower end and therefore are not really successful and then there are people who are almost there but still have tendencies to acquire a different lifestyle. It’s also really hard to measure success on levels because namely success doesn’t last very long and it fluctuates because without I feel to every experience success you need failure.
Overall, I know I never will be a successful person. In my mind when I hear the word success, I look at people who are confident and not afraid to ask for what they want, content, stress- free, and overall generally happy with no complaints because their life is what they want it to be. If every one of those feelings were to occur at a state of my life then I would feel successful. The thing is that is what a majority of Americans want? That’s why we put pressure, acquire more and reach for the stars because we want success but in a sense it’s sort of out of reach. We live in America, the land of dreams and people are constantly changing their minds because in some sense they can change their life, make it different, better and more exciting., which in a sense makes you happy and successful for a bit, but in a few months they
That’s why to me success is not a permanent thing, it comes but then it fades away, with a bout of failure until you will see it again. We obsess over it our whole lives to reach it and when we reach the things that were modeled as successful for most we find were missing something, so are we really successful after all?
Krispay- I put like the same thing- success is determined by happiness!! No matter how much you have, if you're not happy with it, then you can't be successful because you haven't achieved what you want. If you have nothing at all and you're happy with it, then you're successful.
ReplyDeleteMegan- I agree with you about the lunch lady thing. I pretty much meant the same thing like success if measured by what you want, like if you want to work at McDonalds and you do, then you're successful in your own mind. And you're right- you shouldn't judge other people's success because you don't know their life!!
ReplyDeleteBefore I go off with my answer, I would just like to say how much I was intrigued by your blog introduction. “I find it absolutely mind-boggling that you can be in a single edifice and hold the keys to the universe if you look closely enough.” This is so, so, so TRUE. We have to open our eyes more if we want to see more. I’ve coincidentally have been thinking about this sort of philosophy all of this week, so it was amusing to see it on the blog. But anyways, true that!
ReplyDeleteSuccess can diverge in two ways: the “short-term goal” kind of success, or that “long-term”, far-fetched, probably-never-going-to-happen kind of success. The fallacy. I’ve certainly come upon the first type constantly. The second one, on the other hand, is my version of success. Before I get all complicated, let’s simply start off with the first type of success.
I’m going to store. I got to the store. SUCCESS! I got an A on a Calculus test (that’ll never happen). SUCCESS! I made someone’s day. SUCCESS!! The literal version, the more dictionary version, of success probably occurs more often than we realize. The generic version of this word is simply “achieving a goal.” Yeah, that’s both generic and boring. Anyways, this bland-definition type can be described when you have those daily short term goals. I believe I’ll reach success when I finish high school. I believe I’ll reach success when I finish this blog. I have achieved my short-term goal.
Chrissy Hartzell’s version of success, with the way things have been going lately, is both far-fetched and nonexistent (as Uroosa mentioned). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t neccisarily consider this a pessimistic observation. Success, in my eyes, is simply achieving something (anything) that makes me truly and utterly happy. This includes becoming an actress, making my parents proud, and making myself proud. When I realize my true destiny, I will internally know I am happy. When I reach this everlasting happiness, I am therefore successful. When I know I am happy, I know I am successful. Plain and simple. I once came upon this compelling and inspiring quote by Herman Cain. It states, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” I can definitely relate to this Herman guy. Some sixteen year olds find success in receiving good grades. Others find it in being beautiful. I find it in good and beautiful happiness. That is all. Of course, I can be happy on a day-to-day basis, for I am usually. Nonetheless, the purest happiness occurs when you’re doing what you love. That’s where I get into the fallacy.
In my case, I love the rotten and reckless business of entertainment. As you all probably know already, I am EXTREMELY passionate for acting. Words can’t even describe my enormous enthusiasm towards it. Unfortunately, as you also are aware of, the business of acting is one of struggle, cruelty, and high demands. They say that the chance of “success” is slim to none. Chances are for doubters. Although I may have a poor self-esteem, I have never doubted my capability of becoming successful in acting. I haven’t reached my ultimatum of success, and I’m not positive I’ll reach it, but there’s no hurt in trying. As long as I reached my fullest quantity of content, I will be successful. That’s all that matters.
Let’s forget the expense and those awful “chances”. Let’s forget the millions of rejections I’ll probably receive and the numerous times I’ll consider giving up. Heck, let’s even forget acting. In the future, I see my successful self doing something I love. I’ll be smiling while living life. That, in my eyes, is the essence of success. I might be traveling. I might be directing. I might be President of the United States. It doesn’t matter. As long as I love what I do. Let’s forget the rest.
Taylor (sp?)- "Point is, success doesn’t have to be exceeding expectations, sometimes successes are all about the little things."
ReplyDeleteI kinda (sp?) like this. I think if you do a bunch of little things, naturally(sp?) it will all add up to one big success. Like if you pass all of your vocab quizzes and do your homework (little successes) you will naturally (sp?) get a good grade in lang. I like your logic.
lOve (sp?)
Hannah
Kristen!
ReplyDelete'Right now, I know that I'm capable of doing much better than I demonstrate.'
Ugh, same! I know that I can sooo much better than I'm doing in school right now, but I don't know exactly why I fell into such a slump recently. Wait no, I lied. I know exactly why. I'm lazy. It's a lame excuse, but I have a really bad tendency to letting my mind get so overwhelmed that eventually I reach a point where I don't want to do anything. This points to nothing but laziness, and that's the only reason I am blocking myself from pushing so hard. Whether or not that the reason for you, I think we definitely should fix it soon. Cause it sucks to not see yourself as a success, especially when you know that you can be. :/
Hannah S. ---> "You can judge whether or not you are successful by the amount of effort you really put into achieving something
ReplyDeleteand how you achieved it."
Amen. I love seeing these 16 and 17 year old girls at horse shows riding super talented horses at really low levels to win the blue ribbons. Their wins are bull because the horse could win the class with only two legs! I try to compete at a fair level, with enough competition to have to work hard but still have a chance. It feels good to win via dedication as opposed to cheating. Thats just a friggen joke. And good for you for being a team player and accomplishing your goal at the same time!
Total success is total contentment with your life. It's when there is nothing else you feel you need to do. It's when you are finished with everything. That being said, total success is an unattainable goal, as it should be. Although I expect to be trying to reach success for the rest of my life, I would never actually want to get there. If I was totally done with my life and had nothing to work for, what would I live for?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, total success is an impossibility, at least for me. If success is completing everything you set out to do in life I will never be successful. If I was totally successful there would be nothing left for me to learn, no more mysteries for me to solve, and no more people in need of my help, because that is what I want to do with my life. I want to learn all through my life, but I will never be able to learn everything, so no total success for me. I love solving puzzles, but there are always going to mysteries in this world that no one can solve, so again no total success. Most of you know I want to spend my life helping people, and the sad truth is there are always going to be people in need, which, again, means no total success.
Experiencing and doing the things you were meant to do is many times more important and fulfilling than what results from your actions. This is where I make an important distinction, there is a difference between "total success" and "true success." True success if feeling fulfilled because you are doing what you really want to be doing, and, unlike total success, true success is totally attainable, you just have to work for it. The biggest difference between the two types of success is that a lot of people spend their lives looking in the wrong places for total success, and that the miss out on true success. Suppose I ran a huge bank and made lots of money because I wanted to be "successful," but I would never felt fulfilled. I would just age, and while I was making more and more money I would feel more and more empty. My misplaced motives would say that that I need to make even more money to fill the holes in my heart, and now a sick, never ending cycle has started.
True success for me would be working to help people and the world. At some point in my life that could mean me being in the Peace Corps, at another point it could mean me being a therapist, and, at yet another point, maybe me being involved in politics. It can be found wherever I feel led by my inner nature. You know you have true success when you get that feeling that what you're doing is really making a difference. Of course this can not be achieved without hard work. It may mean a lot of schooling, waiting, and luck to get to the places you want to go, but I do believe anything can be done.
Paola: I enjoyed the metaphor you started your post with,it seems to fit your definition of success well. Although I do not believe in one never being successful, I am also a believer in always getting better, always reaching for that next step on the ladder. I believe one can be successful in climbing the ladder, maybe just attempting to climb the ladder is success for someone.
ReplyDeleteJV: I liked how you explained success as achieving your goals through the application of hard work,dedication, and passion. I think these things are key in being successful. I know many people are discouraged by unrewarding hard work, it is something I battle every day. I liked how you described hard work as only a part of the 'formula' for success.
Megan: I liked how you attributed success to personal achievement, using the example with the lunch lady. I did pretty much the same thing except with a farmer, and it was a pleasant surprise to see someone thought the same way about that particular subject. I also admire your sense of never settling for anything but the best. I know getting 1st may not be the most important thing, and success shouldn't be entirely defined by winning, but the drive to be the best does spawn personal success.
Chrissy H ---> "Success can diverge in two ways: the “short-term goal” kind of success, or that “long-term”, far-fetched, probably-never-going-to-happen kind of success. The fallacy."
ReplyDeleteThats my kinda success tooooo!!! Short term accomplishments are great, but thats not necessarily success, its just...progress towards success. Perfecting a jump or turn in dance doesn't have the same feeling as performing a dance and getting a standing ovation (something I've yet to experience haha).
Success is personal achievement. It’s accomplishing a goal. It’s reaching the end of a self-paved road and being happy with one’s arrival. To be successful means to be happy, and if a person is not happy, he or she is not successful. Some people may consider making money successful, or scoring a point in a sport successful, because these events make them happy. These events make them happy because they are inherently satisfying their wants and accomplishing their goals. If such events did not satisfy wants, accomplish goals, and create happy feelings, then the person would not describe the events as successful events. All descriptions of successful events are ultimately descriptions happiness derived from personal achievement. This helps explain why people consider different circumstances as successful. What I consider successful and what you consider successful may differ because you and I may have different goals we want to achieve. Bob says his good academic grades make him successful, but Caroline argues that her perfect school attendance makes her successful. In actuality, both Bob and Caroline are successful because they both have accomplished personal goals.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are different levels of success. People can achieve their goals fully or partially. Those that achieve them fully are more successful than those who achieve them partially. The number of personal goals achieved, and the extent to which they are achieved, determines a person’s level of success. Types of goals do not determine a person’s level of success. A person whose goal is to become a teacher is just as successful as a person whose goal is to become the next CEO of Apple Inc., assuming that both people achieve their goals. The teacher, however, is more successful than the CEO if he or she accomplishes an additional goal such as writing a book. It is difficult to measure and compare how much of a goal is actually achieved. By how what percent did a person aiming to become a doctor achieve his goal if he dropped out in college? Who is more successful if Bob earned a B, while wanting an A, and Caroline missed two school days, while wanting to miss none? Because we can’t measure or compare two different partially completed goals, at least until the TI-5000 calculator is invented, we must measure the level of success with a combination of amount of goals completed along with how much each goal is completed.
Even though there are different levels of success, everyone who is happy is successful. Happy people are successful because they attribute their happiness to achieving a satisfactory number of goals whether fully, partially, or both. This satisfactory number of goals varies from person to person. Whether the personal number is one goal or a thousand, a person is successful as long as he or she is happy with the number, and extent, of his or her goals completed. In order to accomplish goals and be successful, people need perseverance and motivation. They need to motivate and persevere past all the obstacles that emerge between them and their goals until they can finally clutch the goals in their hands, hold them firmly in front of them, and declare, “I made it.”
Uroosa-
ReplyDeleteWell, when you made your first comment in the beginning of this blog, I absolutely agreed. As humans, we DO want more, we never settle for best. We settle for better. So, I took your "I'm starting to believe success may not exist. It's an ideal. An unreachable ideal." and took it with me this week, contemplating whether or not you're actually correct. I forced myself to believe you were right, and, in a sense, you were right. So, when writing my blog, I came up with my own definition of success based on my ideals and goals. I based mine all around happiness, adding that success can indeed exist. So, right after I posted my blog, I went to reading everyone's. I happen upon yours, delighted by your amazing voice and charima that always shines through. And then I see you mention the word "happiness". And then you develop the concept of how happiness is the key to success, which was exactly what I based my blog on. I didn't even read your blog before i wrote mine, and so I'm amazed on how similar our definitions are. I love our similarity, and am "honored" (wink wink) by it.
Gwen
ReplyDelete"At the end of my life, it doesn’t matter to me if I have a big mansion with 16 cars or if I’m living in an affordable 3-bedroom house with a dog and a grumpy-old husband. I only want the satisfaction of being able to look back and say “Dayuuummm, my life was good!”"
This reminds me of my occasional paper! Money really isn't important if you haven't gained any emotional satisfaction from what you've done. I can't imagine how terrible it would feel like to be dying and look back on your life and not see anything you've done that truly made you happy. I think if you spend your life only wanting money you'll miss out on everything else, and that's no life worth living.
Manar!
ReplyDeleteHIIIIII! I see you every.single.day. but I'm always moving or something, so I haven't been able to fully introduce myself. Hi, I'm Gwen, and you've probably heard me yelling/laughing down the hallway at least once. :]
Anyway, as I scrolled back up to read a few more posts, I stopped on yours after I saw this:
"---I wonder if anyone sees success as $ucce$$???"
At first, I laughed really hard because I remember replacing the letter 'S' with a dollar sign when I was younger because I thought I was cool..xD
However, I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of people out there that only view success as the amount of money that they earn a year. Maybe those people were raised in an environment where there was a lot of emphasis placed on how much money you earn, or maybe they believe that money will lead them to a place of happiness. Either way, money always seems to be a popular factor of someone who is defined as successful, and while that may be true in some cases, I believe that there are far more factors to consider other than that.
Stephen!
ReplyDelete'True success for me would be working to help people and the world. At some point in my life that could mean me being in the Peace Corps, at another point it could mean me being a therapist, and, at yet another point, maybe me being involved in politics.'
Whenever you mention being involved in the Peace Corps or helping people in some way, I smile like a big idiot. Haha. It's probably because that's the only place I can you working at in the future. I know you'll be successful in the future, because to me, you are already successful just as a student and a friend. I only wish that we keep in touch until then, because I want to be there when you start to achieve all the goals that you've set out for. :]
Alix L:
ReplyDelete"If I end up sitting in a cubicle depressed every day of my life, I will have been unsuccessful. I don’t care how much money I would be making in that cubicle, because if you hate life, what is the use of having that money."
I said almost the same thing. I could never imagine working in an office for the rest of my life. Maybe some people like working in cubicles, but I certainly am not one of them! I can't imagine living the rest of my life trapped in a corporate world, it seems so suffocating. Anyway, I wouldn't consider that a successful life either, because I would be doing what I am led to do.
Here is a (small) vision of MY life‘s success: Graduate high school with all A’s, Pass college with flying colors, Become a doctor, Earn loads, have a big home, have a family of my own, create smiles everywhere I go, and pass away peacefully. It’s pretty vague (and a tad boring) but overall seems like a successful life. If you made a small list of goals in life and accomplished every single one of them, then you, my friend, are successful (in my definition). This was the vision that popped in my mind when I read the word ‘success‘. Success doesn’t have to meet all of the criteria of your life’s outline. They can be any goal such as baking a cake without catching the house on fire or getting a 5 on an AP exam. It’s that sense of accomplishment. Overcoming obstacles is success. Success doesn’t have to determine life by the quantity of goals accomplished, it can be solely be the goal(s) accomplished. As long as you accomplish something it is a success.
ReplyDeleteI’m not saying success is always winning. You don’t always have to win a race to feel accomplished. You can get better at it and that can be the accomplishment. I remember when I used to run, though I’d never win a race, I know at almost every meet my times would be better and in a way it made me feel accomplished. And I was happy. I was happy that I’ve worked hard and gotten what I deserved. If you haven’t achieved a goal but you benefit from it in someway then it is success. It is true, always winning does not help you grow and experience. We all have to lose sometimes in anything, whether it be the game of LIFE or getting your dream job. Life isn’t perfect. Losing helps us succeed.
My meaning of success takes many forms (I’m probably all over the place and I apologize). But it all leads to one thing. Happiness. Yes, I believe one is truly successful when they are happy with the way things are in their life. An accomplishment, any fulfilled desires, or gaining something worth knowing to better tackle it next time brings happiness. I mean, why wouldn’t it! There is a reason why you strive to do something for yourself. You want this, you want that… it’s all part of a successful life. And even if you don’t have everything you still keep moving on and achieve other things to make it successful. We all shape our lives and when we have reached happiness, enjoying every moment as much as possible, life is a success. That’s all I want… Happiness. I pray for it everyday. My vision may not even come true or I might not even want a thing I listed in there. It’s unpredictable and I don’t believe in fortune tellers to go and even find out for myself. I can even be a hobo if I wanted to, as long as it made me happy. Prostitutes can be successful, if they enjoy what they are doing, not altering their life any other way. All in all, success is happiness.
(Sorry, this blog was hard to organize cause I believed in so many different definitions of 'success'!!)
Alex V. (dancing diva extraodinare)-
ReplyDelete"Success is the accomplishing of a goal in its entirety. A goal of losing 20 pounds isn’t met with success until all 20 pounds are lost, just like a goal to get an A in lang isn’t a success if an A is only attained on a few tests. Its all or nothing."
Touché, touché, touché! I never thought of success in that light, but I absolutely agree with you. Something about doing something incomplete doesn't feel right, and you really just cant consider yourself successful until you fully has fully reached your goal. Your goal isn't losing 10 pounds. It's losing all of those 20 pounds. It's all or nothing may sound a little cruel, but it's right. It really isn't cruel. Besides, you are a very hard-working, tell-it-like-it-is kind of person, so I am totally unsurprised by your personal definition. It definitely fits you, in a good way.
And about your blog comment on mine, you WILL get your standing ovation one day. I know it. You have that drive in dance. I see it everyday during class when you strut across the floor. Anyways, this is just a goal that will need to be fully reached in order to obtain that well-deserved success.
As I said in class, my idea of success revolves around happiness and self-respect. I think that the idea of success being based on material wealth or something like that is only applicable in certain cases, those cases being if material wealth is the actual goal of a person, the actual thing that will make someone feel successful. I think that a person is only truly successful in the large-scale of things is if they can honestly say, on their death beds, that they've lived a full and happy life. I think that everyone, somewhere in the back of their mind, should have the persistent goal of happiness and self-respect to guide them. By self-respect, I only mean having the ability to look in the mirror and in your soul and liking what you see. I judge my success and others' success based on this alone. I feel I can respect and admire a person who honestly respects themselves and doesn't go around killing puppies or something. I think that other people's judgments of success are, for the most part, to advance their own opinion of themselves. Now that I think about it, so is mine too. To elaborate: I never liked the notion of “winners never quit and quitters never win” or whatever, because I think quitting can be one of the best decisions anyone could make. If you try something competitive (something involving “winning”) and you don't like it, why not quit? I've quit at a ton of things that I just didn't like or just completely sucked at, and I've felt so much better after it that I can't even describe it. I think that the only people that say that are people that have either never quit, or in other words, have overly obsessed about so many things to the point where they can't quit because they can't face the disappointment and shame that might come with it, or are just pressured not to quit. That's the best way I can describe what I mean when I say judgments of success are based on what you feel you've done to warrant respect from other people, unless you're crazy and strive for goals that you can't achieve and put yourself in situations where you feel like crap and cry everyday(like me in AP Calc).
ReplyDeleteAs for Ms. Bunje's last question, “what types of things need to happen in order for you to see yourself as a success?”, I think I'm already a success, at least in my sense, because I feel like I've been through some stuff, and I've exited out as a happier, more self-respecting, more humble person and more willing to just relax, let time go by, not worry about problems and feel content and undisturbed by not worrying about problems(AKA lazier, but I like it in my words more).
Paola- I loved your blog because I feel that you measured success on doing and things that you want to feel content on doing. I love the whole wish on the star idea too i think that is really cute and i still believe that your wish comes true. I believe that being in a success in your life does come down to if you can truly be satisfied on your deathbed not wanting to changing one thing you did in life.
ReplyDeleteSuccess is that sort of thing that you cannot really measure for anyone but yourself. Afterall, success is whatever you make it to be. It could be when you meet and exceed your goals; it could be when you reach the level of fulfillment that truly makes you happy. I believe life is complied of many successes, not just one. The only way I could come anywhere near judging whether another person is successful is if I have been in a position similar to theirs. But even then, we are not the same person, nobody is, so it still wouldn’t be an articulate determination of their successes. Therefore I wouldn’t know if a person is successful unless they tell me or show me.
ReplyDeleteFor me personally, I have yet to determine if I am a successful person. Just recently (this weekend) my outlook on life has dramatically altered. Thus my vision for personal success has also changed. But I think the small achievements in life also amount to a greater success. (Sorry, if that doesn’t make sense). For example, I never give up in a crew race. Even if I suck, the feeling of not giving up is amazing because I achieved a challenge put in front of me. This will later on lead to my success in crew even if I suck all the way through it.
I know I mention Christopher Mccandless a lot, but when I think of success, I think of him. He was known as a success academically and he was determined to surpass any obstacle before him. Although he realized he was wrong at the end about finding happiness alone, he was happy as he slipped into death with a satisfied smile on his face. Truly and unquestionably happy, perhaps that he faced an obstacle and learned the truth from it.
Now, I’m not sure if I’ll ever find myself a successful person overall anytime soon. But I’d know if I was successful, the last moments of my life I would experience self contentment and pure happiness.
Justin- I really like how like how you talked about success as perception because I believe that everyone gets caught up with feeling that success is the same for everyone. Your right we have to evaluate what is what feel describes success for us and then we need to go out and get it! I think its really cool that you dont look as success as an overall view but you divide it to what you want out of life.
ReplyDeleteTaylor P.
ReplyDelete- Wow, you're blog was so optimistic and inspirational. "If you can dream it, you can do it!" So, I didn't even read yours before i wrote my blog, and so after I posted my blog, I began reading yours. Of course, it's unsurprising that your opening paragraph is awfully similar to my third paragraph. Well, go figure, we hang out with each other too much! So, with this opening, I automatically assumed our definition would be the same. But you kind of went down a different path than I. You did mention happiness, which enjoyed, but you more emphasized on embracing the little things. I respect that notion, but you know me. As JV also said, I'm a dreamer. I think big, dream big, and normally do not appreciate the small things in life. That's why I described your blog as inspirational. Maybe I need to do that more.....
STEPHEN!!!
ReplyDelete"Total success is total contentment with your life"
Totally, 100% agreeee!!!!! I read on to more of your blog and I totally agree what all you have to stay. I dont feell like anyone is particular successful because in a sense your are so right that is is hard to achieve everything you set out to do. In my sense we as Americans are never content because we are constantly changing what we want in life, so we never give ourselves a chance to be successful. I totally agreee that success is not wanting to change one thing and that is not a easy task to do when you live in America.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Only in the dictionary, does success come before work.” This poster is in front of the athletic locker rooms and in one of our school’s corridors. Success is something that is not easily achieved. There are many obstacles and boundaries in the way. To achieve success, you have to have enough dedication to your cause because, if you don’t you’re going to fail. There’s no question about it. Success wouldn’t be so revered if it was easy. Nobody just wakes up one morning and gets everything they’ve ever wanted. They need to work to get the things they want. The outcome of this process is success.
ReplyDeleteA successful person is someone who has gotten everything they’ve ever wanted, but worked hard for it. I told the story of my uncle in class today. He grew up in Lebanon and had absolutely nothing. After a lot of his family died from the constant fighting, he moved to America, where he then went through our public education system while teaching himself English. He worked so hard to achieve what he has today. I’m not saying that because he makes a freaking lot of money that he’s successful because though I think most people view success as materialistic, it’s a little more than that. He has a beautiful family and brilliant children and he’s happy. He created an ideal life for himself that he would never have gotten in his old country, or if he hadn’t worked as hard as he possible could. He is the definition of success to me. He is not only materialistically successful, but he is as happy as he could ever be.
It takes a long time to judge if you are successful or not. You have to go through a long process and wait for the outcome when you’re done. If you got what you wanted and you’re happy with yourself, you are successful. I will not know if I’m successful in my softball career until I get recruited and I’m done my college career. When I get recruited, depending on how much athletic money I get, I’ll determine how successful I am. If I get a lot of money, the twelve years I spent playing and the seven years I spent practicing five times a week will have paid off, and I will have achieved success.
ReplyDeleteThere aren’t levels to success per say, but there are stages. Success has pit stops along the road where you can stop and see how well you’re doing. I’ll use softball as an example again because it’s the best monitor of success I have. Every time I try out for a travel team, if I make it, it tells me that my training it paying off and I’m where I need to be to accomplish my long-term goals in college. Success doesn’t come without the work. If you work as hard as you can and not let up on your work, you’ll achieve everything you’ve ever wanted.
My definition of success is always evolving; however one thing remains the same. Success is directly linked to goals. When you achieve something that you wanted to, it is a success. I used to think that only wealth equaled success, but now I believe that all you need to be successful is happiness. Anyone from any social class has the ability to be a success if they are happy with where they are. It doesn’t matter if others see you as a success, it’s all within yourself. For example, if you are a wealthy businessman in New York City, raking in millions, but aren’t happy with what you’re doing or want more, you don’t see yourself as a success, therefore you aren’t.
ReplyDeleteI measure my success with how happy I am about something. For example, in swimming, there are many successes and failures. Many people would think that a success would be a best time or a first place. However, this isn’t always so. I may lower my time in a particular event, but not be happy with it. Maybe I wanted to and expected to lower it by even more. In this case, it would not be a success. My coach may view me as successful though. After all, I did lower my time, but the fact that I don’t see myself as successful makes me unsuccessful.
I know I’m successful when I get that happy feeling inside. Whether I finally got a time I wanted in swimming or I finally talked to a boy I’ve been crushing on or I finally achieved something I’ve been striving for my whole life, when I achieve these things, I become successful. This creates different levels of success. When achieving something monumental, you become a huge success. For example, when I finally get my goal time in swimming for a major cut, I will reach a high level of success. However, there are smaller successes along the way to get to this ultimate level of success. I must set smaller goals for myself, creating smaller successes along the way, to reach this final level of success. These different levels of success are measured by different levels of happiness. Although I am happy when I achieve my smaller goals, this happiness isn’t nearly as great as my happiness will be when I achieve that final, ultimate goal.
To by truly successful, all you need is happiness, whether happiness is created through different material things or simply emotions. The stereotypical definition of success being wealth may be true in some, or even most, cases. For me, money does create a level of happiness, creating a minor success. When I earn money, I am happy because I know that I will be able to spend that money on something that I want. That happiness equals success. So yes, some material things may be necessary for some successes throughout life, however certainly not all successes require them. Personally, I think material things are necessary for many of my successes to happen. So maybe the trite definition of success being wealth is true after all.
Paola: “Sorry Drake, but success isn’t about money, car, clothes, or hoes”
ReplyDeleteI agree! Success is not measured by materialistic wealth at all. That’s why I find it stupid how people could find someone who is a billionaire with thirty cars successful merely on those objects. It is the contentment and achieved goals that should mark him as successful.
Shirley: “The school system has established that labels dominate a student's level of success: A's on report cards, 5s on AP tests, a Varsity Scholar Award”
Yeah, a lot of times school officials measure success with grades and college acceptations. They are missing the point of self contentment. I think as long as they encourage people to do better and not set standards of “perfection”.
Manar:” I wonder if anyone sees success as $ucce$$???”
I do think there are people that view money wealth as success. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there a magazine that has a “Top 100 Most Successful People” issue? They determine the person’s success on the amount of money he/she earns, not really the positive effect they’ve had on the world, or whether the person was happy themselves. I bet the magazine doesn’t even ask the “successful people” if they believe themselves to be a success. Haha.
POOJA:
ReplyDelete"create smiles everywhere I go"
If this is how you measure your success, then you are already very successful! Whenever I talk to you, you make me smile! Haha. I also agree with this. If I lived my life without making anyone else happier, I would consider it a failure.
KTG:
ReplyDelete"I can't wait to get out of Jersey. I can't wait to start my next adventure."
First of all, let me say that the diary entry you posted was incredibly moving, you are so talented in so many different ways. No specifically about that quote I pulled, I completely agree. After high school we're all going to go on an amazing adventure, and I am so excited. I am going to miss being with a lot of the people from Oakcrest, but I am so ready to get out of South Jersey and little old Port Republic. Life is an adventure, or at least a journey made up of a series of adventures. Each adventure is going to be different for each one of us.
Kristie: “There are not different levels of success in my book because happiness is happiness. There are cases where other things make one happier than others, but whatever the case there’s fulfillment in that category.” If some things make people happier than others do, and success is synonymous to happiness, then why wouldn’t there be different levels of success if there are different levels of happiness? I get that you’re saying that fulfillment is fulfillment, but I personally see some things are bigger successes than others. That’s just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteLucas: I liked how you compared and contrasted your idea of success to your brother’s. It truly shows how different people have different ideas of what success is. If your brother only sees success as winning, obviously that’s the only way to succeed to him, while you see success as growth and happiness. This absolutely supports my view that success is subjective and really explains why people approach things differently.
KTG: I loved how you added an excerpt from your diary. Totally creative! I always find your blogs so interesting to read and this one is no different. I love your witty little remarks that you make throughout your blogs. You never bore me!
PaolaD
ReplyDelete"Sorry Drake, but success isn’t about money, car, clothes, or hoes. Success is about reaching happiness. To see yourself as successful, you must accomplish all your goals."
-That's funny because when I first read this blog that's the first thing that popped into my head, the song Successful by Drake. Good beat but the meaning was horrible, and sadly that's the image of success that's introduced by the media seeing these "idols" that define success by money, cars, expensive cars and clothes.
Bella Pair of Legos
"Keyword: temporary. Success doesn't live on multiple-levels because in order to be successful, you must progress constantly to achieve success. Success is not permanent."
-That point never really stood out to me before but that's true it makes me think because there is no such thing as perfection, you can always grow and improve your past successes.
"You have to be happy with your growth because in reality, nobody can measure your success on a scale. It's all you."
-I also agree with that. I believe that if you did grow and succeed by showing your improvement yet you are not happy then that's a problem. I understand there are a lot of overachievers (esp my sister that's 2 years older then me) that always think nothing is good enough and aren't happy with a 96 because they believe they SHOULD have done better, but then there is no such thing as perfect and that means they will never be happy because that little growth doesn't satisfy them. My parents call that perseverance and smart thinking to get the through school but I call it being unhappy and unappreciative of yourself by causing stress, and getting white hair early (Yikes!).
Kristie A
"In order to see oneself as a success, overall appreciation for that person is called for. To consider myself successful, I want to make sure I’m not pushing people away and what I’m doing is being noticed. That outlook is malleable to all the forms in which success may come as well. Seeing I am appreciated, I become happy."
I hate to sound doubting of people but I want to say that sometimes people wont appreciate you or see your effort, and you could be not pushing people away and you could be succeeding at the moment. In the end just don't let what people think or react to your success effect you. As you said that happiness is the key part and if you're happy or content with your achievements but others don't see it or the effort you put in it, that doesn't make you unsuccessful and it sure shouldn't effect your happiness.( Which is totally hypocrite of me since I myself search for the approval and appreciation, and when received I do become happy but I believe many do that. I just don't think it's the way it should be.)
&Thanks for the "star" moment :) I appreciate it! lol
Justin H.
"A farmer who makes a significantly larger harvest this year is probably going to think he was a huge success while as an ignorant person may consider this farmer a failure based simply on his occupation. Success is all a matter of perception, what one strives for. Success need not be one set goal or a specific act, and inversely, success for one person may be entirely determined by a specific act or attained goal. Neither person is wrong, just peering through the looking glass at a different angle."
-That really is just the captured picture of today's society, we are all looking in on the glass on a different angle and we all like our own view.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteYou said that you think someone i successful i on their death bed they can say that they lived a happy life. I agree with this 100% and that's all I want out of my life, personally. In a previous blog, though, you criticized me saying that I shouldn't go out looking for experiences (because that's what makes me happy. I don't actually go out, driving around, looking for new things to try. But if a new opportunity happens to come up, I will hardly ever deny it. I think my experiences will make me happy, therefore successful when it really counts.
Brynne:
ReplyDelete"Overall, I know I never will be a successful person."
I hate when we are talking and you put yourself down. Most of the time I don't even think you realize doing it. But you are a smart, funny, beautiful person and I know that you WILL be successful in life. You need to let go of the attitude that you aren't good enough because you really, really are!
KTG:
ReplyDelete"Life is....so incredibly beautiful."
I love that even when you feel extremely crappy about everything, you can look past it and see the beauty in it all. I know that lately you've been down about certain things but you always keep such a positive attitude. You are definitely a success :)
Chrissy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the two diiffernt aspect of success, short-term and lon-term. I tend to think that people make success seem like it's impossible to acheive, but like the car example, if I were to go to get to the store safely, that is success. Success can be complicated or not. I wrote about the second type, though. I feel strongly about working hard to get what you want because I've been working for something for the past twelve years and I have five more to go.
KTG:
ReplyDeleteAhh Katie!! I was soo going to use a Mario example. Ha Ha. Commenting on that first paragraph, I just want to say you’re so talented. You at least pursue in what you love to do and because of this I believe with all my heart you will go far. Now I’m going to comment on the rest of it, your blog is so full of yourself! It made me smile when I was done reading it, your talent of amusing people shows through here (and all of your other blogs I’ve read).
Taylor P:
I was drawn by your introduction and yeah you’re definition of success in that paragraph was very light… lighter than mine I’d even say.
“But better then all of these things, and what I consider to be the very definition of success is completing something that makes you happy.”
I agree completely. I believe reaching happiness is equivalent to success. Overall I enjoyed reading your blog, you sounded so peppy! It’s good to celebrate even the smallest things, it shows that you don’t take things for granted. Well done :]
Alexis B:
“A person with no real ambition can win so many awards and never feel successful because they didn't have any desires to fulfill in the first place..”
This is very true, I completely forgot to mention that there is such a thing as worthless winning. It also ties down to happiness or satisfaction, somebody with ‘no real ambition’ that wins constantly means they are not satisfied with what they are doing which means they are not happy. I’ve realized many of us have a similar definition of success. Your blog was crystal clear to read :D, I liked it!
Paola,
ReplyDeleteI laughed for approximately 5 hours and 26 minutes when you mentioned Drake. Success is not just about getting money, cars, clothes, or hoes. (Not to mention that using hoes to describe a general population of women is demeaning. It's like calling all women bitches. Guys are always saying, "Hey bro, I saw these hot bitches this weekend." These people are obviously uneducated oafs, but anyway...)I think success is about material goods to a certin extent, but you need to be happy at the end of the day. Trust me, I know what it's like to truly hate life at the en of the day, and you should never feel like that. People should do what they are passionate about and what makes them happy. Then. they'll be truly successul.
Deanna N.
ReplyDeleteI hate when people complain too. I couldn't agree more that that kind of complaining makes someones life meaningless. If you don't like the class, drop out, and do something that you actually do like instead of staying up all night wasting your time doing work that has no meaning to you. Now, I make fun of stuff I don't like (Calc....) but still do the work and try to put some care into it, no matter how boring (Calc....), seemingly pointless (Calc....), or life-sucking it may be(Calc....), though I don't have a life anyway....oh wait, yeah I do...it's full of Calc. Now where was I? Oh yeah: someone needs to tell half the kids in this school to STOP COMPLAINING because it just makes their lives less worthy of anyone's respect, including their own.
Lucas S.
I like you last point that “If I will never be happy with what happens to me, there is no point in living.” I try to live like that too, which is why I can't stand, well Calc, but also people that complain like in Deanna's post. I think that you have to just be happy, just be really damn happy, with whatever you have. My cousin, who's the most interesting, yet boring-sounding person I know, called it insanity when I told him that. But I disagree completely, because when I look at him, I see someone with a life that should be filled with so much more happiness. Whereas I, when pretending to not be me, see my life as crap, even though I, when telling my self that I'm not pretending to not pretend to not be me, loves my life(except the Calc part).
Bella
I think you're post is a lot like Lucas' in that you see success as a kind of personal growth that can always be improved on. I think I would see success a lot like that as well, but that would conflict with the whole lazyness thing I have in my post. I think that if I tried to view success as this, then I would be a lot less successful, at least in my eyes, because when I lose, I never feel like “Oh, well I did better than I did before, I just need to prepare better,” I feel like I always put in enough preparation, but I just fall asleep at the execution, which often happens literally. I think I have narcolepsy or something(I think Calc may be causing this...). But anyway, I feel like if I had success=growth, then I'd never be successful, because I never feel like I do anything personally prosperous or growth-worthy.
Roosa Z.
ReplyDelete“I think being successful in life, I mean “adult life”, is waking up and being happy. Happy with where you are in life. Happy that you woke up.” I agree with you and even included this idea in my blog. Success must mean happiness. It must mean happiness because all the things that people attribute to success such as reputation, money, and powerful jobs all ultimately lead to happiness in people’s minds. People say, “I would be happy if I was famous, rich, or important,” and they say this because they think these attributes will make them happy.
“Though I believe that to be successful you need to be happy, I also believe that you have to be successful in other’s eyes. When I say ‘others’, I don’t mean ‘everyone’.” I know that your blog entry is about what you take as successful, but I don’t think you should take your reputation into measuring your own success. Success should be if you—not other people—are happy. It is acceptable to base personal success on other people’s happiness if their happiness makes you happy, but you seem to base your success on other people’s happiness at the expense of your own.
Bella P.
“You must progress constantly to achieve success. Success is not permanent.” I disagree! Like I said earlier, happiness equals success. Once you’re happy you’re successful. You may say that we aren’t always happy and therefore success is not permanent, but when I say happy, I’m referring to happiness with life overall. Of course, no one is happy every second of everyday, but there comes a time when a person remains happy with his or her overall life and when this time comes, the person permanently successful.
Sarah L.
“There are not many people who can sustain putting all of themselves into every single aspect of their life. It would be beautiful and amazing if it was possible for everyone, but it’s not realistic to me. I don’t believe you have to do that to be successful. You have to know what’s important to you, then regularly balance those things.” This is a good point. I try to put everything into everything, but I guess I need to start learning balance too even if it “is one of the hardest things to do in life.” Balance can help people maintain their lives and be successful by helping them avoid overworking themselves.
I also want to note that I liked your transition from a personal anecdote into the topic of success.
Lucas, take a "not" out of the last sentence, I messed up the negatives a bit, I think.
ReplyDelete-Calc is just ruining everything I ever knew about math.
Dictionary. Com defines success as the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. I’m sorry but that’s pitiful. Our world has come to the point where success is measured by social stature, and money. Success to me is not whether my wallet is full or that I am known by many people. Success is finishing what I started. Not quitting when times got tough. Knowing my limits and always trying to push them farther then before. That is how I judge success. The way I judge whether or not I was successful at a venture is how I completed it. When I strive to complete a task did I put in a full 100 percent? Or did I procrastinate until the last moment and slop something together. Yes there are completely different levels of success, being successful in math class, and getting into an Ivy League college are two completely different realms. I believe in short term success and long-term success. Short term would be studying for a math test, or doing to on your next report card. Long terms success would be getting accepted into the college of your dreams, nailing that big job, or even saving enough money to retire. Long-term success will take time, but can be accomplished with hard work and determination. Don’t let up on the road to success because failure is always in your rear view mirror. Giving up on short-term success can also be detrimental to long-term success. If you choose not to stay up late and finish that important essay or put in those extra hours studying, you may quickly see your long-term success goals disappear. To see yourself as a success you must always have you read held high (I know it may seem cliché) but in order to be a success you cant let minor difficulties ruin your path. There will always be something in the way pushing you away from your objective. But in the end your success will feel so much more gratifying knowing that you overcame these obstacles to get where you are. You yourself can only judge your success. Something so small as not smoking that last cigarette or exercising more can be a huge success for some people. No one else should be able to judge how successful you are, knowing where you came from and how hard you worked to get there is the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteGwen
ReplyDeleteI really like that you showed how success can be relative and I agree with your definition. Getting rich is not successful for everyone, and it’s certainly not the only success for most people. Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately with my own family. My sister is dyslexic and had to go through years of therapy, and tutoring. My parents have always tried really hard not to compare us. The year my sister was left behind, they got her gifts and took her out for a nice dinner because she was doing well with tutoring and trying really hard. That was a major success for her. I have to admit the same year I hardly tried at all, even though I was on the Honor roll. Your sister is really inspiring, and I think it’s awesome that you appreciate her so much.
Steve
You make a good point about how we need the constant allure of success to drive us.
“If I was totally successful there would be nothing left for me to learn, no more mysteries for me to solve, and no more people in need of my help, because that is what I want to do with my life. I want to learn all through my life, but I will never be”
I really like that a lot, and it’s very well put. It reminds me of the beginning of anna karenina “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” how drab would your life be if you did everything perfect and got everything you wanted. Our failures make us unique and human. I love your idea of true success, and it makes me think about how the journey is often more important than the end. Grade grubbers might get 100’s, but the kids who are actually engaged and feeling fulfilled get the most out of it. Way too many people never realize they are stuck in the cycle.
Paolaaaaa!:
ReplyDelete"Sorry Drake, but success isn’t about money, car, clothes, or hoes. Success is about reaching happiness. To see yourself as successful, you must accomplish all your goals."
Everyones commenting this, and i almost decided not to but i couldnt contain myself.
Our world is becoming so materialistic, these lyrics are proof. We all need to strip back this nonsense and return to ideals that will actually get us some where in life.
lucas:
"Success is being able to accept who we are and fulfill our own personal goals and needs."
This statement is so dead on, Success should not be what the world percieves it as but something that you yourself strive for. PS I would also like to be the Happy homeless man.
Taylor:
"success doesn’t have to be exceeding expectations, sometimes successes are all about the little things."
I love how you mentioned success being about the small things in life. Its so true that all the small successes that occur each day add up into a very large success in the whole scheme of things.
My definition of success seems much more unreachable as others were portrayed. I am constantly not content with the things I accomplish and therefore I never feel I have succeeded in anything actually large in my life. My belief is that to be successful, we must fail and fail again, and we can’t actually be a “success” until later in life. Little accomplishments accompanied with mass failures are the road that leads to success and those little “I got a 100 on a test!” I believe isn’t actual success but just an accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteThe components of success, in my eyes, are much more life based. The things at around the age of 50 we can look back and judge if we were successful or not, and “how successful” we actually were. Success does not only linger in the realm of money or possessions, I believe education and the things accomplished in life make a person much more successful than someone who tried a shot in the dark of a get-rich-quick scheme. I also believe there are different levels of success in one’s life. I believe someone who comes from a poor family and becomes a lawyer is much more successful than a rich snobby person who takes it for granted that he will be successful. I know that sounds odd, but I believe that the success is not just where a person ends up in life, but where they started also.
The realm of success is based on many different aspects, which are where they started, what they accomplished, and how they accomplished those tasks. If a person can define all three of those aspects, I believe it will determine how successful they are on a relation of the three. At the current time I don’t believe I am successful, I have accomplished many things in my life but I have not yet experienced success in anything because I haven’t actually accomplished any huge obstacles and I don’t believe many teenagers have. For me in particular to be successful I would need to accomplish all the things that I sought to accomplish which include getting into a very good college, getting far in my job and in life. With the collaboration of all the things I’ve witnessed and accomplished through my life will ultimately tell me how successful I actually am. As for now it is just a race to accomplish as many things as possible, and I nor most other high school students cannot actually grasp the concept of success because I feel it is mainly life based, not just single accomplishment based.
Uroosa: “Like I have previously stated, I don’t believe that I can deem myself successful for a long period of time.” As I also said in my blog, success is not an instant thing that can be obtained by getting an A in math. It is a much longer and developed process that takes years to accomplish. I believe there is a dividing line between accomplishments and success. It takes many small feats to come out on top.
ReplyDeletePaola: I like how you compared becoming successful to a latter, and each step on the latter is a step further into success we become. This analogy makes a lot of sense to me because like I said numerous times before, success isn’t something that comes overnight but hard work is involved.
Lucas: “My thirst for knowledge has finally returned, and now I realize that wanting to learn leads to victory.” This quote did not only make me laugh, but is also very true for me too. Knowledge is a very large component success for not just you or me but many people who seek money, a career, or prolonged goal. To me knowledge will always be a catalyst for our want to be successful.
Naturally, everyone has their own idea of success; an “A” on a chemistry test, an acceptance letter to a top-choice university, or earning a spot on the varsity roster. However, once you reach these goals, how do you measure continued success?
ReplyDeleteLately I’ve been trying to come to terms with my extreme need for perfection. Along the way I’ve realized that success is self-defined. In other words, one person’s idea of success could be another person’s idea of failure; it all depends on personal goals and ability. To answer the real question here, “how do I define success,” I believe that success is trying your best, giving one hundred and ten percent all of the time. My new philosophy (for this week anyway) is “Always give your all. No excuses, no regrets.”
Before I had this revelation, I used to put enormous amounts of pressure on myself to perform at my highest capacity all of the time. Whenever I went to a swim meet, I expected best times every race. It didn’t matter if I finally made important stroke corrections, improved my turns and underwater pullouts, or if I won my heat; it wasn’t good enough. Not only are best times impossible to achieve every time, it’s mentally crippling to expect them, but not swim them. I realized that I was actually hurting myself by expecting unattainable success. To use another reference, since you guys are probably sick of me talking about swimming, it would be like a baseball player going up to bat and hitting a homerun every time. Some people may say “everything is possible,” but it’s not. Things like that just don’t happen. Even though I still hold myself at a high standard, I’m learning how to cope with not being at the top of my game all of the time.
I see people who are happy with themselves, their families, and the accomplishments they’ve reached as successful. Success is being proud of the life you lead and the decisions you make. This sounds cliché, but I would rather have happiness, friends, and a family I can count on than the traditional tokens of success such as, fame, objects, and money.
In order to see myself as a success, I need to be confident in what I am doing, and also be trying my best. I know I am able to do anything I put my mind to, so with a little bit of sweat and a lot of determination, I also know I will succeed. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I can’t control my own success, I can only control my effort and attitude, which ultimately lead to accomplishing my goals.
Kaitlin:
ReplyDelete"To by truly successful, all you need is happiness…"
My thoughts exactly! I hate when people put a universal label on success like it’s something you have to reach a certain level to obtain. Success is anything that happens that makes you happy, and I’m so glad we agree on this subject. We basically had the same philosophy on success, which is probably why we’re such close friends. ☺
Kyle:
"I think that everyone, somewhere in the back of their mind, should have the persistent goal of happiness and self-respect to guide them."
Self-respect is a huge deal with me. If one doesn’t respect themselves, how do they expect anyone else to respect them? I also agree with the remainder of your blog. I like how you related different types of success with different types of respect, it was interesting and definitely got me thinking.
Stephen:
"Although I expect to be trying to reach success for the rest of my life, I would never actually want to get there."
I love how you think! I would never have thought of this, but since you said it I agree with you whole-heartedly. Success is a life journey, and also something that needs to be appreciated. That is probably one of the coolest, and most true, metaphorish-things I’ve read on our blog in a while. Keep up the great work! ☺