Some of you may have noticed my poll on the definition of success (to the right of this blog). Based on all two votes in the poll, my guess is that only a few people have seen it. That is besides the point, though. I was only interested in the viewpoint of my fellow earthlings.
The other day I read a very interesting article. The article was highly antagonistic, but at the same time it gave the reader insight into the culture of many Asians. Then, a couple days later I heard more mention on success in Asian cultures on television. Many Asians feel a lot of pressure to be "successful" and because of that they have more yearly suicides than most places on Earth. This caused me to do some serious thinking about my definition of success.
My intent in posting this post is to explore the definition of success, since it is different in every culture. Every one of the inhabitants on Earth have different viewpoints and because of that we like to come up with definitions which we can all agree on. In the case of the word success, the definition is very vague. Imagine that.
Courtesy of Dictionary.com: Success = the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. Many people focus on the first part of the definition~the attainment of wealth. Today, on the Oprah show it was said that, in reality, a family of four needs to make no more than 75,000 dollars a year to easily survive as a middle class family. This can prove this point quite well, if you chose to believe in it.
There is always that phrase "wealth cannot buy happiness" hanging over everyone's head. I think it's true. We as a society need to value happiness more. There needs to be a balance. All in moderation, I always say. The world is becoming materialistic, rude, and irresponsible by the minute. Let's get rid of these pukish qualities, shall we?
There are other less common definitions of success, but from my perspective the primary topics that humans focus on are money and happiness. What about you? What's your definition of success? Vote in the poll before it's over and let's see what is the most common definition!
The other day I read a very interesting article. The article was highly antagonistic, but at the same time it gave the reader insight into the culture of many Asians. Then, a couple days later I heard more mention on success in Asian cultures on television. Many Asians feel a lot of pressure to be "successful" and because of that they have more yearly suicides than most places on Earth. This caused me to do some serious thinking about my definition of success.
My intent in posting this post is to explore the definition of success, since it is different in every culture. Every one of the inhabitants on Earth have different viewpoints and because of that we like to come up with definitions which we can all agree on. In the case of the word success, the definition is very vague. Imagine that.
Courtesy of Dictionary.com: Success = the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. Many people focus on the first part of the definition~the attainment of wealth. Today, on the Oprah show it was said that, in reality, a family of four needs to make no more than 75,000 dollars a year to easily survive as a middle class family. This can prove this point quite well, if you chose to believe in it.
There is always that phrase "wealth cannot buy happiness" hanging over everyone's head. I think it's true. We as a society need to value happiness more. There needs to be a balance. All in moderation, I always say. The world is becoming materialistic, rude, and irresponsible by the minute. Let's get rid of these pukish qualities, shall we?
There are other less common definitions of success, but from my perspective the primary topics that humans focus on are money and happiness. What about you? What's your definition of success? Vote in the poll before it's over and let's see what is the most common definition!
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