When it comes to the definition of success, the dictionary gives five different definitions. They are:
1. 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.
4. A person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.
5. (Obsolete) Outcome.
I believe that in most people’s minds, success is more in reference to the first and second definition. Wealth, position and honors are the major things almost every single person is pursuing throughout their lives. It frustrates people when they get stuck in the process of striving to achieve their goals. They will feel anxious, lost, helpless and inferior.
People will have agony only when they are striving for wrong goals.
A peaceful life, a healthy body and a lovely family: those words are rarely associated with success in most people’s dictionaries. It makes me think of the movie Click: the protagonist, Michael Newman (Adam Sandler), devoted almost all his time to his job to get a promotion. Meanwhile, he sacrificed the time he was supposed to spend with his family.
A remote came into his life that makes it easy for him to skip the process of his promotion just by clicking the remote. However, when he skipped all the pleasure he was supposed to enjoy with his family, things around him began to change. He realized how stupid he was before and what the significance of life is for him.
It is true that when we are on our way to our goals — to be successful — we might succeed ahead of time if we turn to another perspective to think about it. In terms of the first definition in the dictionary, if our prosperous termination of endeavors is to have a peaceful life, a healthy body or a lovely family, success is standing close and waiting for us.
Many people say they don't know what they want. Actually, I think that implies they have no courage to face what they want or have not made enough effort for what they want. If the goal was too magnificent, they are afraid of daydreaming; if the goal was too easy, they are afraid of being insignificant. What they don’t know is that being successful is easy if they distinctly know their intrinsic value.
Another concern from most people: Is success equal to happiness? My answer is that if we can avoid the situation where we can only figure out what others have and what we don’t have, then we are probably the fastest people to approach success and obtain happiness at the same time.
The significance of success can be either magnificent or slight; the key is your perspective. It's good enough to perform at the best of your ability and cherish the intrinsic value around you all the time.
Yun Ye is a junior studying journalism and a columnist for The Post. Email her at
yy822809@ohiou.edu.
