Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Finding a Meaning to Achieve Success


       The goal setting workshop opened my eyes to how truly lost I am.  Most of the other fellows have a reasonable grasp on what they think they would want to do with their lives after OSU; however, I cannot even scratch the surface on what I want to attain in life.   In the worksheet to list twenty life-goals and rewrite ten, I only came up a total of ten- in the time that most had already finished the worksheet.  The ten goals I did come up with were stretches at best and not one had anything to do with a specific career field.  This specific task opened my eyes to how I lack the futuristic characteristic in my life, and it might be time for me to figure out what I want to get out of this life. 
            Due to my lack of career plans or goals, my definition of success is more generalized for life events, rather than specific causes or plans.  To me, success can be defined as when a person holds nothing back and gives everything they have in a situation that is important or worthwhile in their life.  Success can be one small thing, small things building up, or one big breakthrough.   I realize that most people will define success at achieving or reaching a milestone or goal.  My thinking to counteract that logic is that a person has to find his or her own definition of success and what makes them happy in life.   To some people—like me—getting good grades in school is what drives them to succeed, to others it may be how many friends they make or the possessions they accumulate. 
In essence, the definition of success is ever changing from person to person depending on many variables and environments.  The basic definition of success to me is to find a calling in life that makes a person feel worthwhile, and to give it every ounce of ability and effort into that subject.  If you are going to spend time doing something, why not give your best effort and do it to the best of your ability; instead of wasting yours and everybody’s most valuable possession: time.  Success can be achieved by anyone at any age as long as they find meaning in it and give their heart into it.   
Like politics, sports, or debates, every person thinks their way of thinking is better than the next persons’.  Defining success or meaning falls under that same category; every person values success in different ways on different scales.  The key that I have found is to allow them to dictate what they want to specifically achieve and mold their achievement in a way that would best benefit the group and/or me. 
My roommate, one of my closest friends, has different definitions of what success means at the college level.  To me, success in the college atmosphere is to attain the best education possible by challenging myself in the classroom to the best of my ability.  On the other hand, his definition of success is by simply finding what gives him joy in life, and to attain as much reasonable amount of fun and good times as possible.  He constantly lectures me on why should he give the extra eighty percent effort for only twenty percent gain.  In our value system, I place a high importance on achieving in the classroom setting, while he would rather focus on making life memories and enjoying the little time we have—he still excels in the classroom, but only by giving the minimum effort necessary. 
No way is better or more right than the other; we just have two different philosophical ways of going about things.  Even though we think differently, we have been able to grow our friendship and have not had minimal arguments or confrontations while living together.  Both of us will occasionally try to push our point across, such as I will tell me to study more and he will tell me to go have more fun.  Regardless of our different definition of success, we have found a way and lifestyles that fill our need to feel valuable in life, while giving our best in whatever way that we see fit.  Our goals and achievements may be different, but we are both content and happy with the lives we live.     

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