DEFINING SUCCESS

As what my favorite journalist once said in an interview: " In our family the measure of success is happiness. When you feel happy, then you are successful, it's not the other way around."
When I heard her say this, I realized that everyone can be successful depending on how each of us sees our own lives in a different perspective. Just because a person is famous, rich, powerful, living a luxurious life and having a good job doesn't mean he/she is successful already. In fact, it's quite the contrary. Some of us are only blinded by the fact that by having an easy and wealthy life they can outdo others who are less fortunate than them, believing themselves successful enough. Funny, because more often than not those people who think that they have got everything, are the ones who usually feel there's something missing in their lives. They are the ones who are focus on bigger things and completely ignoring the little but important ones. For instance, a man who got a good job that pays him a good salary makes more time in his job than his family. He may be happy because he can provide a good life for his family, but the effect would be quite opposite to what his family feels. As much as his job is important to them, having more quality time with him is what makes them happy. Success and happiness are two different things that some of us view it as one and the same. You can be successful without being happy, but you can be happy even if you are not successful. There are thousands of ways on how success and being successful can be defined. It doesn't have to be always means goals that have been achieved, making dreams happened, earning big and living in a big house and driving an expensive car. Success is beyond having and enjoying material things which don't last long. Success can simply means a feeling of contentment. Even if you don't have everything in life but you get to appreciate every little things that's happening in you and you feel happy about it, then I guess you are just as successful as anyone felt, only in a different way. I believe that it is not hard to enjoy the simple pleasures in life if you know how to appreciate smaller things. It's only a matter of priorities and importance of things that counts. For example, a kid who grew up having only his mother around, working and taking care of him but finds ways to bond with him might be as happy than another kid having both parents but don't get to bond with them much because of being too busy. A person who doesn't get to find a stable job but finds time to do charity works could feel successful by helping other people than to somebody who has a higher position in a big company but rarely pays attention in donating to the needy. People can be successful by simply leading a good life, by just being healthy, by having empathy to others, by simply knowing their purpose, by doing their passions, by discovering their talents and learned on how to use and share it to inspire others with it.

Everybody can be successful with all the abilities, skills and wisdom that God had given us. If we will only use all these tools to change our lives with the intention of making progress to the world rather than to ourselves alone, I guess we can all benefit to the success of each and everyone of us.