If there’s one single word in the dictionary that is over-used, sometimes abused and often misunderstood it is this one: success.
Success seems to be the one thing that everybody in the world wants. Everybody wants to walk away from the great exam of life with a decent grade, and this ambitious attitude in itself is no bad thing, but it becomes a problem when we begin to lose sight of what success really means, and what it’s truly about.
We live in a society which has poisoned itself with superficiality, a society which has become so obsessed with beauty, status and the acquisition of material goods that it has left many feeling inferior and self-critical that their achievements do not compare to those of others. All too often, life seems akin to a big race or competition in which everybody wants to be a ‘winner’ and, most certainly, nobody wants to come last.
But despite what we are so often made to think: success is not about money. It’s not about status. It’s not about power. It’s not about having model-looks and it’s not about mass popularity – in other words, success is not about the factors from which others often tend to judge us.
Success is simply about being you and being happy with you. It’s about spending your life doing the things you love both in your career and in your free-time. It’s about being a good friend, and making true friendships. It’s about having fun. It’s about believing in yourself and the way in which you conduct things, it’s about being at peace in your own company, it’s about having a loving mindset, a respect for everybody and above all, it’s about having enough respect for yourself that you can resist any pressure to change into what you think other people think you should be.
Real success comes from pursuing true passions, not from trying to impress anybody with your power or status. It is most certainly not a race, and it is most certainly not a competition. If it is viewed that way, we will constantly be left wanting more rather than enjoying what we already have. Success is deep within all of us, and it’s just waiting to be discovered. It is not something which is found only by being the best at something, it’s found by being our best, and that is something we can all achieve, without exception.
Song of the Day: British Sea Power – Carrion
Classic British indie-rock. These guys go from strength to strength, but it is their earlier releases that seem to be the best.
sophiekemsley 
Very important post Sophie. I think that you have really made a good point about making success personal to you. Modern life seems designed to infilitrate minds so that we can no longer understand where our own sense of ‘me’ is and what’s important. Think this is especially true of corporate giants and advertising, they have way too much mental control over people. Guess it’s like you said earlier, we really do have to live in the present moment to get a sense of personal success and not look to the past or future for answers.
I agree entirely. An excellent post. I think people often lose sight of what makes them happy in the search for “success”. The film American Beauty is good on this point. A quote from the film is – “In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times.” It gets to the point that success is entirely a superficial thing, and ignores totally how someone feels internally xxx
Great post Sophie and some very wise words 🙂 I have just started getting into blogs and thought I would come back and read yours for inspiration. I’ll give you one guess as to what mine is about….Laura xxx