Part of the American dream is to obtain success, however, there are infinite ways to obtain true success. Do we as aspiring individuals need to know what success is in order to achieve it? In my opinion, success is having a life that makes one feel comfortable and secure.
Success can be tricky to understand because the media can blur the true meaning of success. While watching any television infomercial about success, the selling company would like the viewers to feel that success comes with money, cars, jewelry, homes, land, privately owned business, a certain occupation, or all the technological toys that you could imagine. Many people feel that the only way that they can be successful is if they have more material things than the neighbors next door. The media flaunts people with large houses, several cars, and tons of gadgets and gizmos that most people could only dream of owning. This false idea of success is what makes success so easy to misunderstand.
What success truly means is being comfortable and content with what we have as individuals. If one person wants to graduate college and they reach their goal by making it through all four years, then they have achieved true success. Although we usually have to achieve something great to be considered a success by the general population, one can achieve success by doing several small tasks that add up to one large success. For example, someone who starts off in a low-income neighborhood and eventually ends up with a nice neighborhood with their own house would be considered a success to themselves, but maybe not to their neighbors.
Another way to achieve success is by making something out of nothing. Making a cake from scratch is notably harder than making a cake from a box mix. People that come up from a bad neighborhood and becomes a CEO would be considered a success in most people’s minds. What does not impress people is when we have many talents and we don’t use them or don’t push ourselves to achieve something great.
The measure of success is best measured by oneself. Success can not be forced onto someone by another individual. In order to feel truly successful, one has to be content with oneself. Although success can be brought attention to someone, it still takes the successful individual to come to the realization to really feel the success. A big success can last a lifetime, such as curing a disease or building a house, but less important success can leave one feeling unaccomplished. Small success can actually motivate people to keep on striving for perfection, which might lead to a slight loss of sleep.
It is strictly up to the individual to determine what success means. Since ideas can not be forced into our brains, we have to come to the conclusion of success on our own. Although money and other material objects can come along with success, like happiness, money can’t buy true success.
