What is Success?

How does one define success?  I can only define success on a personal level.  For, I believe that everybody has their own unique way in which they define success.  I see it as something that is individualistic and always changing.  One person may call success finishing high school and another may see finishing high school as just a stepping stone.  One may see that attaining a 4.0 during high school as success and another may see it as attaining a 3.5, a 3.0, a 2.5, etc...  It is all up to the individual person to determine what it is that they specifically see as success.

Success is something that is always changing also.  For instance, the person who one day saw success as attaining their high school diploma may sometime in the future decide that they need to obtain a bachelor’s degree.  So, they would go on to college and work to obtain their bachelor’s degree and once that was obtained they would see that as success.  This is why I believe that it is always changing. 

It is something like a goal that we set for ourselves and once it is achieved there is always another that we set.  These goals and successes may be big or small.  It can be small like just trying to finish a 5K, or finishing a paper or finishing a book.  It can also be much bigger, such as, running a Fortune 500 company or becoming a professional athlete.  These goals are set and once they are attained it can be defined as success.  Yet, once they are attained there are other goals that are set and we may change our idea of what success is and start pursuing the next goal that we have set.

Much of my definition comes from my personal experience that I have had with this definition of success.  When I was in high school, my idea of success was to finish school and become an all-state wrestler.  Upon going to state my senior year and completing high school I went into the Marine Corp and saw success as gaining the highest rank that I could achieve while I was in.  While I was in the Marine Corp, I started a family and my idea of success changed to that of being the best father that I could be.  Throughout my life I have succeeded at many things and have constantly changed my idea of what success is.  Right now in my life, I have set a goal of attaining my Ph. D. and becoming a professor.  I see this as success right now, but once this is attained, how I see as success may change to when I publish my first book or become a tenure-tracked faculty member.  My idea of what success is, is always changing and will continue to change through the rest of my life.  It is what keeps me going and striving every day of my life.