“Veerasanyaasin” Swami Vivekananda was a giant among philosophers and one of the greatest proponents of Hinduism, that too, at a time when the entire nation of Hindus had been subjugated by foreigners financially, morally and politically. Some of his quotes are eternally etched in the ether of this universe and in the collective psyche of mankind. “Arise and awake”, “Sisters and brothers of America”, “We are what our thoughts have made us”, etc. But, personally, the most motivating thought for me is –
To exist is to change.
To change is to grow.
To grow is to succeed.
To succeed is to keep on being a success forever…
This thought is so powerful and speaks out to the entire humanity in a single line! When I tried to delve on the means for the realization of this “success forever” in my life, I was confounded by the high bar set by this last one line. How can anyone achieve a success and keep on being a success forever? That brought me to the more basic question “What do you define as a success in life?” I went down the path of discovering this elusive definition of success in my own personal context. At this point I would like to make it very clear to the readers that this context is very important for any person to realize success and own it happily. As the saying goes, “to each his own”.
Normally when you ask any person what is their definition of success in life we hear things like –
- Becoming a CEO
- Becoming an IAS officer
- Marrying a rich spouse
- Building a house
- Buying a car
- Starting a business
- Winning an election
- And the list goes on….
But honestly, is this a success in life? Success is something that gives you happiness. How happy will that person be when someone builds a bigger house or buys two houses or has a better car or marries a richer spouse or becomes CEO of a bigger company…? Well, I feel such things can at the most be termed only as an accomplishment or an achievement and not a success. An accomplishment is always beatable, but success? That is lasting!
So what is my idea of success in life? From a very young age I have always done certain things without realizing the significance of those actions. I have always been a very helpful person from a young age. It is not that I would do it because someone told me to do so, nor because I would enjoy the appreciation after doing the good deed. It was just something I enjoyed doing. As simple as that! Helping someone in need whether requested or not was something which came naturally to me. It was a personality trait. Now guess what? That is success! Each time I helped someone in a way big or small I had a kind of satisfaction in me. I had succeeded in making something better for someone in their life! That thought would make me happy. That is the kind of success no one could take away from me; forever! So, as I realized. This was a success that lasted long. But this alone did not make it a success forever. Now my definition in life for success is to help; that is something I can do anytime, anywhere and to anyone. So as long as I exist I can keep doing it. So long will I be reaping success. So now we see it is a success forever! So simple; yet so true!
Success - An event that accomplishes its intended purpose.
ReplyDeleteSuccess for me is as simple as achieving your set goals.
Goals which you really believe in
Goals which you wanted to achieve
Goals that make you happy
It could be as simple as
- solving a Math problem (while at leisure)
- Reaching the summit of Mount Everest
- Also others mentioned above
Buying a car, Building a House, Becoming a CEO…etc
Solving a Math Problem at leisure at home is more satisfying than in a Classroom, as the first thing comes into mind is who finished first ?, if you’re not the first ,the sweet feeling of solving the problem turns acrid.
Though you accomplished it, you served the intended purpose, still you are not happy.
Now buying a new car, it‘s wonderful, as you always thought of making a family trip in the comfort of a car only till the point you see a bigger, costlier car parked right next to yours with a Tagline that says “TAKING THE LEAD” while yours says “CHANGE YOUR LIFE”.
Though you accomplished it, you served the intended purpose, still you are not happy.
You always wanted to have a House of your own, where you would sit on the veranda and sip a cup of tea with hot Pakodas while it is raining. Couple of months later the vacant land next to yours gets a duplex , with a well designed Railing, huge Gate with automatic response system, doors and windows carved on Rosewood timber with an excellent finish, walls painted with latest emulsion advertised by SRK.
Though you accomplished it, you served the intended purpose, still you are not happy.
Question is did you build a House or a Home.
The Problem with all Human being is we "COMPARE"
I think, at every level we have accomplished something and it gives a sweet feeling of Success till the point someone else does it better. The culprit is comparison.
I am sure while reading the passage and at many points one might think with respect to certain examples.
No, at that point I never felt jealous or envious and I will never feel because I was and I am still happy... but yaaah… at some point I did, but that had nothing to do with what I already had… but yaaah… may be a bit with respect to the other.
As I see it, the things that you cannot compare are....
- Compare two homes (not houses)
- Compare two benevolent acts
- Compare two happy people
Here as you see there is a common factor and that is Human emotion.
You cannot compare human emotions.
You can never say who is happier than whom.
The moment you can compare the charm is gone.
Had there been an Apparatus that could rightly measure the human emotion on the count of 1 to 10, we will lose even this happiness/satisfaction in achievement/success.
If you compare the world to a staircase, and people fighting to reach the top
A person standing at a higher spot is successful but not you because you are at a lower spot while you are seen as a successful person by someone else at a lower position than that of yours. But we really don't see it that way do we.
After reaching to our current spot, for sometime yes, but few moments passed we start comparing and the happiness is lost the success is short lived.
So every accomplishment, as I see is SUCCESS and it is eternal only if you really wanted it and it’s an ongoing process as long as you don't compare.
above sounds familiar :-)
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