Success in life
I fear the day I get this question during an interview or graduate school application: "What is on the 63rd page of your autobiography?"
I am actually a little unsure of why this question scares me so much, but I can say it has to do with me judging myself on whether I have been "successful" in life. As I pointed out in an earlier post, Turkey has shown me that the word success differs quite drastically across various languages and cultures. While I've met an equal amount of intelligent people in Turkey and the US, success as a word is something in America you can probably hear on average 5 times a day.
Now with all cultural differences set aside, I think it's important for the definition of success, and therefore success in life, to be something individual, something personal. While I was sure for quite a while that I had success pinned down and naively believed I had the forumla to it, my perceptions have been shakin' up in the last few months, specifically in the last 4 weeks.
I caught on to a conversation this weekend between a few trainees about life here and what they want to experience. The majority of the conversation was based around searching out experiences, on proactively looking for life changing places, peoples, and events. I began to think honestly about the implications of believing moments and people that stay with us forever, that connect to our past experiences to shape us into our ever changing persons, have to be actively searched for, almost likened to a scavenger hunt. Is this true? Does the person that lives in the same house, the same city, knowing the same people for their entire lives not lead a worthwhile life? Will they die happily, or die ruing the fact they never actively seeked out a variety of peoples and experiences?
I have always been a huge proponent of doing this. Of actively seeking out experiences that challenge myself and others, that build skills, that expose myself to new perspectives, etc. Furthermore, I've tended to look down on individuals that don't do the same. However, in the last week, certain experiences and people have come out of nowhere. I did not search for them, nor "set goals" to achieve this or that.
I did not actively seek out these experiences, but they have undeniably left a mark, a huge mark. What this last week or so really made me think more about are the experiences and people we never expect to meet nor ever pro-actively search out, and the multiple chapters they leave in one's life. Sometimes I think I could write out the outline of my autobiography until my death. What a stupid thought! It seems more and moreso that the unexpected has and will have more of an impact than anything I could ever consciously search for.
And as a byproduct, these realizations have slowed me down. Less and less I'm running around like a wild goose expecting to only feel successful in life if I put myself in a position to do so. I still believe that is an important part in creating a completely rich autobiography, but I find moreso everyday that huge chapters of it may come from a talk over coffee, over a walk through a park, or even a look into the eyes of a passing stranger.
I am actually a little unsure of why this question scares me so much, but I can say it has to do with me judging myself on whether I have been "successful" in life. As I pointed out in an earlier post, Turkey has shown me that the word success differs quite drastically across various languages and cultures. While I've met an equal amount of intelligent people in Turkey and the US, success as a word is something in America you can probably hear on average 5 times a day.
Now with all cultural differences set aside, I think it's important for the definition of success, and therefore success in life, to be something individual, something personal. While I was sure for quite a while that I had success pinned down and naively believed I had the forumla to it, my perceptions have been shakin' up in the last few months, specifically in the last 4 weeks.
I caught on to a conversation this weekend between a few trainees about life here and what they want to experience. The majority of the conversation was based around searching out experiences, on proactively looking for life changing places, peoples, and events. I began to think honestly about the implications of believing moments and people that stay with us forever, that connect to our past experiences to shape us into our ever changing persons, have to be actively searched for, almost likened to a scavenger hunt. Is this true? Does the person that lives in the same house, the same city, knowing the same people for their entire lives not lead a worthwhile life? Will they die happily, or die ruing the fact they never actively seeked out a variety of peoples and experiences?
I have always been a huge proponent of doing this. Of actively seeking out experiences that challenge myself and others, that build skills, that expose myself to new perspectives, etc. Furthermore, I've tended to look down on individuals that don't do the same. However, in the last week, certain experiences and people have come out of nowhere. I did not search for them, nor "set goals" to achieve this or that.
I did not actively seek out these experiences, but they have undeniably left a mark, a huge mark. What this last week or so really made me think more about are the experiences and people we never expect to meet nor ever pro-actively search out, and the multiple chapters they leave in one's life. Sometimes I think I could write out the outline of my autobiography until my death. What a stupid thought! It seems more and moreso that the unexpected has and will have more of an impact than anything I could ever consciously search for.
And as a byproduct, these realizations have slowed me down. Less and less I'm running around like a wild goose expecting to only feel successful in life if I put myself in a position to do so. I still believe that is an important part in creating a completely rich autobiography, but I find moreso everyday that huge chapters of it may come from a talk over coffee, over a walk through a park, or even a look into the eyes of a passing stranger.
posted by amartin4 at 12:50 AM
3 Comments:
One thing that I learned back in 2001. and that has been moving me since then was a saying "Success is a journey, not a destination". It`s all about the journey... It`s all about learning new things and discovering how much there is out there that you don`t know nothing about. And learning more... and discovering more... If you can accept that, then you are already on your journey of success... so don`t think about it anymore... just make sure it lasts whole your life... cheers
"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."
Albert Einstein
Just to play Devils Advocate... İf you had not put yourself into another country and been pro-active that way you would never have had those experiences. But İ do agree that some of the best things in life hit you over the head while youre not looking, and that the journey is completely THE Point. İ also have been feeling exactly the same way about outlining life... there are so many little things, idea and observations that will change you and gradually make you into a person the old you would never recognize regardless of the fact that nothing outwardly changes. İ feel like the more İ learn the less İ know and thats amazing because its incentive to go on and meet others and journey together.
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