Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
I love this mantra. In addition to quoting it often, I have a little picture frame with it collaged in the center. An old boss gave it to me accompanied with an encouragement I've heard often in my life, "Figure out what you want and go after your dreams, Michael. You have so much potential." Such musings have been showered over me as long as I can remember. These words, meant to be kindness and encouragement, after awhile can become an overwhelming pressure. Over the years, they'd heaped up on my shoulders and became a crushing weight that had, at times, seemed impossible to bear.
Could I ever live up to this "potential" I seemingly possessed?
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate encouragement as much, if not more, than the next guy. But, this word "potential" is where I developed my qualms. At what point does "potential" turn into "success"? When would I cross the line to which I was no longer just possessing the possibility of doing/being something meaningful and actually do or become something/ someone meaningful or great? And, who is the determiner of such things? Who decides when "potential" has turned into "success"?
Many people have different ideas of how success would be defined...I found interest in some of the following quotes on the matter.
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill
“I want to define success by redefining it. For me it isn’t that solely mythical definition – glamour, allure, power of wealth, and the privilege from care. Any definition of success should be personal because it’s so transitory. It’s about shaping my own destiny.” -Anita Roddick
“It is the satisfaction of doing it for yourself and motivating others to work with you in bringing it about. It is about the fun, innovation, creativity with the rewards being far greater than purely financial.” -Richard Branson
Three different people and three different ideas of what exactly defines success. My favorite quote thus far, however, is by none other than Ralph Waldo Emerson. He breaks success down from a westernized way of obtaining all you can and climbing to the top, to a very basic, simply applicable idea for the common and extraordinary man.
“Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!”
In summation, I'd like to say "thank you" to all who have encouraged me in my "potential" throughout the twenty eight full years I've lived thus far. I used to let this affirmation flow in one ear and quickly out the other but have grown to appreciate the perspective of others to see the gifts laying await within me. But, to the encouragers, the nay-sayers, and the objective alike I say, I not only possess potential, but success. In the eyes of a material obsessed, western culture (myself included), I look quite ordinary. But, I laugh often, sing loud, create with joy, express freely, and love much. In my perspective, that's more success than some will ever have.
So, before you start measuring your accomplishments with other's yard sticks, consider what matters to you. Consider who and what you value and make sure that your success is defined in your terms by what really matters to you as opposed to what matters to everyone else.
One step at a time,
M
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