Success: Defining and Understanding

A while back, during one of my more down times in life, my mother came across some "Success Quotes" in one of her home magazines. She pulled them out and gave them to me, knowing that the idea of "success" (in all of its glory) was stressing me out and bringing me down. I felt like I was a failure, that I had wasted the entire twenty-one years of my life. The quotes that helped me out most were:

"Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success."- Dr. Joyce Brothers

If anyone was to tell you that you have failed (at anything) you may take it hard. When it's your own mind telling you that, though, it's something else. Other's mean words are easier to brush off, but your own adverse thoughts stay with you. Staying positive is an important key to achieving success.

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."- Bob Dylan

You create your own goals, your own idea of success. If I was to wake tomorrow, and say to myself "Today you will smile, laugh, love." I would absolutely go to sleep feeling my success. Say what you want to say, do what you want to do, act in today for tomorrow, saving yesterday for memories.

"Don't confuse fame with success, Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."- Erma Bombeck

I know that the majority of the population has done exactly what Erma Bombeck has told us not to do. Helen Keller was (and still is), without a doubt, famous. But her level of success is far greater than Madonna's. I, personally, would much prefer to have Helen Keller's success over Madonna's fame.

"Always aim for achievement, and forget about success."- Helen Hayes

So simple. Make goals, and aim to achieve them. Success is an idea that has been built up by years and years of media and outside influences. Take control of your own success, achieve what you want to achieve, be self-suficient and self-reliant. Never forget about your happiness.

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."- Booker T. Washington

When you look at it from this perspective, and don't negate the things you have overcome in life, you'll see how "successful" you truly are. If you're reading this, you are a success, you've made it to this point in your life. Don't deny yourself that kind of success.

All of these quotes bring up so many different ideas of success. Which proves (to me at least) that success is a state of mind, a personal belief, and there really is no single "meaning" or "act" of success.