What is success? And what is failure? How does one define these two simple words? We can easily define the meaning of each word by looking at the dictionary, but in reality do we all interpret it the same way? I don’t think so. People always set different range of target for themselves, they have their aims and goals to achieve. Success and failure can sometimes become a very fine line because to some people one kind of result or achievement may mean success or even failure. So like the saying goes, there is nothing certain in this world. Generally, people will judge you as a successful person by looking at how much money you earned as well as your career prospects. Does others point of view matter a lot? Truthfully speaking, it matters to us to a certain extent because we will use it as a source of motivation to carry on with what we are doing. If we work hard, does it guarantee that we will be successful? I’m not sure about this because I think sometimes we need some luck too in order to achieve what we want.
We can definitely set our priorities right, we can set our goals, we can lay out plans as to what we will be doing to achieve that objective. As selfish as a human can be, which is a sad truth to the most of us, and as much as how we lay out the plans effectively, we are bound to face obstacles which could eventually lead to failure and might also affect our self-esteem too. Although we may have already identified mistakes or flaws, finding a solution to make improvements is another matter because at times we can run out of idea or literally do not know where or how to correct that error. This can be very demotivating and frustrating to a person especially when he/she not able to achieve what they want despite all the efforts poured out. Why is that? Where is the problem? Sometimes you just do not know where the problem lies which can be very frightening to them because deep inside them, they really want to achieve sometimes but couldn’t.
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
It may be true, but to really look at why we fail, we really need someone to help us look at different angle which is why counseling helps because they will help us to explore ourselves and look things at a different angle. Success also relies on the adaptability of a person, whether he/she can adapt to an environment or situation that they are in proves to be vital. If we see a person is very good at adapting themselves, it shows that they are smart and therefore chances for them to success is high. Of course, everyone faces failure in their life but whether they can accept it and climb back up is another question. In the early stage of life, most adolescence do not recognise the feeling of failure because their life has been a smooth sailing experience. But as we come closer to adulthood, things start to change, they begin to face challenges which they have never encounter before and there will be a time that they will be given a taste of failure and to some first timers will tend to make their life miserable because they have never fail in their life. But then we must understand that, without failure we will never learn things and never know where our mistakes could be. I can view my early failures as good sign because I feel that it is better for me to realise all these things before I step into the real world which may or may not give me some culture shock. I somehow have a feeling that by going through all these will eventually enable me to be prepared for a transition to the working life and that I can use my experience to overcome my challenges I may face in future.
I may be a useless person for now in terms of studying and not being able to achieve good results in a way I wanted to, but I swear that whenever I start my career I will be successful as I want to be. My definition of being successful is being able to do things well by planning my financial resources, I don’t think of being rich but I want to be able to afford what I want or what I need. Though I will feel useless as now, but I will not be the same in future because I believe in myself that I will be able to achieve what I want. For now, what is in my mind is that I want to be a skillful yet responsible driver, never felt as useful as before while remaining as kind as I am. I certainly do not want to change into a very self-centered person because of what I have achieved. I want to be well off by being smart in managing my finance and eventually allow my money to work for me even when I do not have to do anything. I am actually viewing my failures as a good start of my long journey but due to the constant failure I’m facing which costs a lot of money, I am totally lost and feel really useless and disappointed to myself. I believe that even though I may not be good in studies, who knows I will be better when I come to work but I also have to face the fact that there is a chance for me not to have a successful career too but I am determined to be successful. When come to think of it, many people view successful as being able to earn a lot of money but we tend to overlooked that job satisfaction also can make you feel successful as well. Deep inside me have this very strong feeling that I can do that in future and now it is not the time for me and the failures I’m facing now is training myself to be strong for years to come.
It is funny that every human wants to avoid failure when we know the fact that it is completely unavoidable and is bound to happen anytime, anywhere in any stage of our life. If we are strong enough, we can use failures as a well taught lesson to avoid the same mistake. People cry out loud when they face failure and thought they will fail forever, it is hard to tell why some of them always fail, probably because of low morale, low motivation, nobody that support them to move on. I believe that the people who are facing failures are hoping that someone out there can guide them to see the light because nobody can be as strong as they want to when you have a low self-esteem. They will tend to shut themselves out from any light if they go through rough pathways themselves but if they have someone who is experienced enough to rely on, then they will be more than willing to fight because there is someone guiding them to where they are heading to.
So how a person can be considered as successful and failure? The question is how are you going to judge them based on what perspective you are looking on. You may look at the amount of hardwork they have done, their achievements regardless of how they did it and vice versa.
Success, we must do something to be successful. As for failure, we don’t have to start doing anything also can be deemed as fail too. Sounds simple isn’t?
