When we are asked the question \u201cDo you want to be successful?\u201d, most of us would answer yes. But when then asked, \u201cWhat does success look like to you?\u201d, many of us would then draw blank faces .<\/p>\n
The media thrusts upon us a Photoshopped version of success: wealthy lifestyle, sexy body, respectful career, frequent visits to Caribbean beaches, hot wife\/husband, charismatic personality, and powerful connections with political figures. Examples of successful figures in the media include Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, and Tony Robbins. With enough exposure to the media\u2019s portrayal of these successful figures, many of us eventually come to believe in the misguided notion that all successful people must act like Elon Musk or Tony Robbins, and that if we don\u2019t behave or possess the same traits that they have, then we must not be successful!<\/p>\n
But the Taylor Swifts and Tony Robbins of this world aren\u2019t the only people who are successful. There are successful people who don\u2019t behave like them, who don\u2019t live lavish lifestyles or have political influence, and who don\u2019t fit the media\u2019s view of success. We rarely hear about them because they are the everyday \u201cnormal\u201d people whom the media doesn\u2019t fawn about. They represent the silent majority of successful people. This means that the Taylor Swifts and Tony Robbins are simply a subset of all successful people, which leads to the corollary that most successful people don\u2019t have the lifestyles or personalities that the media portrays them to have!<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a saying in politics that if you don\u2019t define yourself, then your opponent would do it for you. Likewise, if we don\u2019t create our own definitions of success, then society would project one onto us, even if it were one we don\u2019t personally identify with. Blindly chasing after society\u2019s definition of success leads to frustration because our achievements feel empty. The more we strive to achieve for them, the harder we work, and the faster we spin the hedonistic treadmill.<\/p>\n
In chasing society\u2019s projection of success, we base our progress and personal satisfaction on how loudly society applauds us. The louder the applause, the happier we feel; the less the applause, the more dejected we feel. Like the continual waxing and waning of the moon, we become tethered to other people\u2019s approval and our happiness depends almost entirely on other people\u2019s judgement of us.<\/p>\n
In society\u2019s version of success, one never truly becomes successful. There\u2019s always someone richer, more influential, or more charismatic. There\u2019s always someone who has more. The way to win the adoration of society is to spin faster on the hedonistic treadmill of life. Like Zeno\u2019s tortoise, one would continuously approach the goal of success but never obtain it.<\/p>\n
However, a personal definition of success enables us base our happiness not on the loose judgements of society, but on our own judgements. Our accomplishments feel meaningful because they are important to us and are not just checkboxes on a generic to-do list. We act with strong integrity and uncompromising conscience as we make decisions that resonate with our personal creed, and not the meandering ethics of society.<\/p>\n
A personal definition of success removes the need of a hedonistic treadmill and enables us to focus on achieving what we want, and what we find important, not necessarily what society tells us is important. In drafting our own definition of success, we attach meaning to our goals and our progress feels genuine. We can step off the treadmill and choose to live a lifestyle that we are proud to live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When we are asked the question \u201cDo you want to be successful?\u201d, most of us would answer yes. But when then asked, \u201cWhat does success look like to you?\u201d, many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":519,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lennycheng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}