I’ll ask you – Do you feel happy when you see other people succeed in their chosen career? Or do we have this tendency that when we see them achieving great things in life we fancily show to others that we are happy for them but inside we are eating our hearts out?
To many, other people’s success is a matter of luck. To some, success seems to come suddenly. When we see others’ successes right there where they are, we fail to realize what it had taken them to get them there. Ultimately, we also fail to realize what it will take for us to get to the same level of achievement. To some level of degree, success is not actually all about career advancement and rise in terms of positions. It is not singling out on the prestige that we earn and the power that we hold.
Let me give you a definition of success in which I personally adhere into. This is best stated in the book of Dr. Ron Jenson entitled “Make Life not Just a Living”. Success is a progressive realization of what we can possibly be and do. As simple as it is, verbatim, success is actually about what and where our interest excels. You see, when you try to define success by what other people are achieving, we are not actually referring to it – we are actually defining their and not our success. In some instance, we then try to imitate their achievements into our lives, or in the lives of our children. “I should take this course to be like him” or “Son, you should become a doctor someday just like your uncle.” “You should grow up and become a seaman, just like our neighbor.” Why can’t we just be ourselves?
When you feel that what you are doing is where you are of service, and when you feel like there you can feel happiness, then there lays success. Success is when you answer your calling regardless of what other people think about it. To some, they call it a vocation. Others call it career or title, and to few it is simply a “role”. Becoming a housewife is success when a family lives with harmony and happiness. Becoming a messenger is success when it’s a man’s way of service to both his community and his family. Becoming a farmer is an ultimate success when he realizes how immediate the need of all for food is. Becoming a teacher is success when he knows that he works for his living and for the future of his students.
No one is created alike – everyone is unique, that is. Realizing our capabilities is actually taking one step at a time. We will never get into the last step but rather we will continuously discover new things about our chosen arena. Success is not a stop but constant and successive serendipities which gear us to be more excellent in things that we do.
Learn to appreciate yourself rather than conceding to the compulsion of envy. Be proactive and believe that you can do it! It would be different when you say, “If others can do it, why can’t I?” because success is actually thinking “Even if I can’t do what they can, I can do something and excel in it.”
Again, success is all about realization of anything you can POSSIBLY BE, and what you can POSSIBLY DO.
Thank you very much.
