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Redefining Success: Going Beyond Society’s Definition
Success. A word that holds so much power and meaning in our society. It is often associated with wealth, status, and material possessions. We are constantly bombarded with images and messages that tell us that success is defined by external factors. What if success was not just about what we have, but who we are?
Growing up, I was always told that success meant getting good grades, going to university, and landing a high-paying job. And for a long time, I believed that to be true. When my path varied from this expectation, I felt like a failure.
I was paid for good grades until my parents could not keep up with a $100 bonus for straight A’s. It was the wrong motivation and destroyed my relationship with education.
When life had other plans and my intestine ruptured in my last year of high school, my world shifted but that feeling of failing never left me.
I continued to navigate what many would define as a successful career and acquired things that society deemed as markers of success, but something was missing. I had everything you’d think someone would want, yet I felt unfulfilled and empty. It became clear that society’s definition of success was not my…
