↠ Having lots of money. That's success. Going to college and getting a fancy degree. That's success. Having the best job out there. That's success. Doing something big. That's success. Being the smartest person out there. That's success. Getting whatever you want in life. That's success. This is what the world is teaching the next generation, that success comes from money, being well liked, and being smart. Even the dictionary's definition for success says: suc·cess səkˈses/ noun The accomplishment of aim or purpose. The attainment of popularity or profit.
Hundreds of young people out there are discouraged + overwhelmed because they haven't reached the bar of success that the world has set before them. They feel that they have to do something great, be something great, and receive something great in order to be what billions of people define as successful. As a seventeen-year-old, fresh out of high school, I get confused by the meaning of success as much as the next person. There are days when I feel so discouraged because my life doesn't seem as exciting as that friend, It doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing as much as that girl, and I tend to think that I'll never be as "successful" as that other person. That literally goes through my mind every time I stress over the future or about different things in my life. Why is this? Why do so many people think success comes from money and popularity? Well, if success doesn't necessarily mean that, then what does it mean? Define success. Before we can truly understand the meaning of success, we must first learn what success isn't. Success isn't any of the things I listed above. It really isn't. If you say it is, I'ma stand here and laugh at you. Success isn't about having wealth, an earned degree, or popularity. It is so much more than all that. That's the problem with today's society, everyone has gotten the word success mixed up with the word accomplishment. All the things in life that people call success are really just accomplishments, another label to slap on themselves. Success isn't some super hard thing that's impossible to gain, or something that only certain people are privileged to obtain. It's really right here by us, we just have to choose to see it.
So what do I think success is? Success, dear reader, is the fact that I am here on earth. That I have been fearfully and wonderfully made by a creator that loves me. I am well and in good health, that is success. I live in a country that's free, that is success. I'm the big sister of four people that love me, that is success. I was forgiven of my sins and made whole by a man called Jesus, that is success. A little girl with blue eyes touched my hand and said "I love you," that is success. Getting big cinnamon roll hugs from my cabin at camp every night, that is success. Realizing the difference between success and accomplishments, that is success. All of it. While working on my picture cork board last night, I couldn't stop grinning at all the captured memories I held in my hand. All those faces, all those smiles, and all those people that I love somethin' fierce, right there. I was pinning the pictures to the board + thinking of my summer + laughing a bit at some of the photos when I suddenly thought, "I am just so successful." It may sound prideful of me to write this, but it really isn't. I am successful. I think you are successful. I think the person yelling down the street as I type this up is successful. I think we're all successful. Success isn't accomplishments. Success will never be. Success is all about how we choose to live our life, the relationships we have, the memories we make, being loved, and loving others. God has given us all so much, success is everywhere. We just have to open our eyes and choose to see it. Don't confuse accomplishments with success, don't let others define your success, you define your success and it will be drop dead beautiful! "Do you defines success as having more or becoming a better person?
