Being Successful

Have you ever just been in the moment and you start getting deep in conversation and end up saying something wonderful? Well that doesn't happen to me much, but it did last night! I don't want to get into the full story because it's personal between me and my husband, but we made up a new definition for success that I would like to share with you all.


I think our society is incredibly competitive. With sports all over TV, celebrities pressuring us to look a certain way, Facebook and other social media showcasing all our friend's triumphs and how wonderful their lives may seem, and basically any work or educational environment is filled with competition and all these things can really just bring us down! It's hard to stay positive when you are constantly comparing yourself to other people and in this world it's so hard not to make these comparisons!

BUT STOP!!

Take a breath. Breathe it out and relax. Now listen:

You are an incredible person! More than that, you are successful! 

Now I may not know you personally, but I know that if you're reading this then you've already had tons of accomplishments in your life! When we're babies and toddlers our parents make such a big deal over our first successes: learning to roll over, learning to crawl, learning to walk, learning to speak, even learning to sleep through the whole night is considered a huge success to them! But as we grow older all those little successes we had as children because normal and mundane because they are things we do everyday.

But what if we took that idea, how learning to roll over is considered a huge success and apply it to what we do now. As an adult it's hard to see anything you do as being successful especially in such a competitive world. But we are successful, everyday! And I think it's important to celebrate the small successes in life!

Maybe you made mashed potatoes for the first time (that was my success today), or maybe you got the courage to speak to your crush, or maybe you ate healthy today and avoided that brownie, or maybe your only success was pulling yourself out of bed and making sure you got to work on time! Those are all successes!

In this competitive world it's easy to belittle the small success we make everyday. I made mashed potatoes today, wa hoo, on Facebook I learned my friend is building a house. How does my success compare with that?

That's the point, we can't compare our successes to other people!

Success should not be measure by beating other people and comparing yourself to other people. You can be successful only by beating yourself everyday. You are successful by doing something that you like and that makes you happy. Who cares what other people are doing? Who cares what they think? If you think that making mashed potatoes is a small success in your life, than it is!!

It has been really difficult lately to watch all my friends graduate college. I feel like my college experience has led me nowhere. It is so hard to not compare myself to all my friends as I see them graduate and get good jobs. But I need to stop comparing myself to others. I need to only compare myself to my past self. Am I better off than I was yesterday? If yes, than I am being successful in my own life.

The richest man in the world may not actually be successful if he isn't happy with his life. So many of us may worship him and wish we were like him, but we can't compare ourselves to him. We can only compare our level of success to ourselves.

It doesn't matter if I haven't graduated college yet, I am successful in my own life because I feel like I'm going down the right path and I'm doing what makes me happy. That is the definition of success. It's not comparing yourself to others, it's doing what makes you happy and makes you feel good and proud of yourself, no matter how little those accomplishments may be... like making mashed potatoes.