Rethinking Success and Making it Stick

When I started thinking about success, it was a fairly simple concept: you set a goal, you work towards it, and once you’ve achieved it, you’re successful. But as life seems to continuously prove, successful moments are often ephemeral, and satisfaction is never a guarantee. Many people I meet, despite their label as “successful,” find themselves in a state of mental unrest, or at least, not as happy as they’d hoped to be. It’s time to rethink what success really means and, more importantly, how we can make it stick.

ㅤ

In our fast-paced world, true success is often misidentified as the accumulation of wealth, fame, or power. High-paying jobs, luxurious getaways, and glowing accolades form the backdrop of our dreams. Our society seems to have a template for an ideal life: a well-paying stable job, an Instagram-worthy social life, a house complete with its white picket fence, and the perfect nuclear family. This common dream, though, can be misleading. It tells us we need something big and that we need to achieve it now. Not in ten years, nor five, but right now, during the best years of our lives. Unfortunately, chasing this entity we call "success" can often make one unhappy.

ㅤ

To rethink success, we must first unlearn what we’ve been taught. Like many things in life, success isn't one-size-fits-all. It's a deeply individual and personal journey, shifting and taking new shapes over the years. Tiny milestones matter. Big leaps are great, but so are the small steps that keep us grounded and reinforce our determination.

ㅤ

An essential component of this redefinition is recognizing and embracing your values, the core principles that matter