no one is successful

Success isn’t measurable but unfortunately, we are forced to consider ourselves to be either successful or unsuccessful based on the amount of kids we have, the degrees we have, which school we went to, our last name etc.

Success is different for everyone. Your definition of success may or may not be different from my definition of success. In today’s society and in today’s culture, we are told that hard work leads to success. We are told that getting an education, going to college, getting a good job, having a family and getting rich are all ways to be successful. But what if I told you that one man’s success does not equal another’s? People say that comparison is a thief of joy, yet they tell the same definition of success to everyone around them. 

The definition of success that society has placed over our heads has limited so many people from pursuing their passion. To some people, success does mean having a family. It does mean having a good job and getting an excellent education, but that’s not the case for everyone. Success for someone could just be waking up in the morning, getting through the day, or even giving someone a compliment because they decided to step out of their comfort zone. That is success and that does not make you any less successful than the millionaire with a different mindset. 

Everyone has something that makes them stand out from others. If you put a handful of students in the room, everyone does not share the same exact qualities. Student 1 is amazing at volleyball. Student 2 is horrible at volleyball, but she just got her research paper published. Student 3 cannot do sports, or isn’t as smart as Student 2, but they have a gift of inspiring others through their words.

Once you accept what makes you different, your self-esteem will thank you and it will help you find out who you are.

So many high school students are pressured, wondering about their futures and if it is successful in the eyes of society. Whenever I tell anyone what I want to be when I grow up, they always either look down on me, tell me good luck, or just genuinely wish the best for me. That is because society has deemed having a psychology degree as useless. And maybe it’s true–you can’t do much with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. There aren’t many jobs for it. But what does it matter to them? Why does what I want to do have to be in line with what society thinks that I have to do? Why does my passion have to be in terms with society’s definition of success? So what if my bachelor’s degree in Psychology can’t land me any jobs? I will continue to pursue it and I have no intention of stopping there.

I strongly think that if I waste my life chasing the idea of what other people think success is, I will almost never get to where I want to be. I will just be chasing everyone else’s idea, mainly because I don’t have my own and because I don’t have any attainable goals. I’m just out here doing what everyone else wants me to do and I’m never happy. I don’t think I’ll ever be happy like that. 

You cannot learn how to be successful nor can you teach someone how to be successful. Do you really want to know how to be successful? Create your own version of it. Create goals that lead to what you want to be and actually work towards them. Once you do that, I promise that you are a successful person.

no one is perfect.

I remember when I was younger and I wanted the perfect lips. My lips are on the bigger side and I wanted them to be different. Due to the media and my peers, I wanted my lips to be small and thin. I was so insecure to the point where I looked up on Google how to make my lips smaller. Years later, having big lips is now trendy. People are getting lip injections and lip fillers. When the Kylie Jenner trend was going around, I was wondering why people would want such atrocious lips like mine. I didn’t even like my own lips. Why would someone else want them? 

Some, like me, try to fit into everyone else’s definition of “perfect,” but when they find out that perfection is false, it sends them into a rabbit hole of doubt, insecurity, and uncertainty. Trends are changing every day, let’s be real, and perfection is subjective, especially in today’s world. So many people want the “perfect” body type, until it changes 10 years later, and it’s no longer perfect. 

I really hope that as people try to become “perfect,” they discover an even more important principle. That is finding out who they really are and maybe even eventually appreciating themselves. I know for a fact that I love my lips now 🙂

Self discovery is never ending. We change daily. We lose hair. We shed dead skin cells. My favorite color today might not be my favorite color tomorrow. Throughout life we experience changes, challenges and learn new things. Understanding ourselves is a task on its own because there are so many beliefs and motivations to explore within ourselves.

And although finding yourself is never ending and is not really guaranteed, the journey to finding yourself is beautiful. You discover your strengths, your weaknesses, your likes, your dislikes. You start to realize that no one really knows who you are except for yourself and your creator. You also start to realize that there’s really no one like you. Although you may have friends with similar interests, you may have a deeper love for that interest than the other person or vice versa. 

Let’s not try to make ourselves and our lives “perfect” end up forgetting the good that we already have.