Success is a Broad Term: Earn it & Learn from it

We all want to achieve success in our lives, and it can be compared in many different ways with people all over the world. Maybe you want to be the best family person and parent you can be, or you want to dazzle everyone at work by being the most over-achieving employee, or the best friend that is going above and beyond for your friends to be sure they improve themselves.

Success is a broad term and is seen by people in various ways.

Whatever the case may be, the purpose of achieving and maintaining success is to suffer, persevere, stay persistent, and ultimately embracing it.

Success isn’t given, it’s earned.

Let’s start with the work force.

Depending on what you do for work obviously, success doesn’t just mean meeting your numbers or getting the best score on a test at school as a student. While that helps you performance-wise, and there’s no question you’ll get great results on paper (potentially leading to a promotion or considerable raise in pay), what about social success?

Social success can range from coworkers to family to friends to strangers you meet on the street. Are you successful in terms of how you make people feel? Are you making the world more fun to be in, and making everyone in your orbit feel more alive because of you? Are you changing someone’s life for the better?

Because if so, good for you! Those traits carry you a long way in this life and don’t go unnoticed. To each their own, I get that, but one of the most inspiring quotes is from Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball back in 1947.

Robinson said shortly before he died “A life is not important except in the impact that it has on other lives,” and please let that quote sink in. Success doesn’t just mean attaining the numeric goals you set for, nor does it mean just making other people feel good, there’s a lot more to both of those sides.

Are you thriving in the work force with your job responsibilities? What about in the social world or general population? Are you the best family person you’ve always strived to be? Also, does success mean achieving the best results instantly without a bump in the road? NO. If that’s the case, you’re lucky. One of the biggest aspects to being successful is failing.

Is failure your biggest fear? Because if so, you’re not trying hard enough! My biggest fear for instance is something happening to those I love that I have absolutely zero control over.

Failure is something you should not necessarily embrace but be ready to face and wear it. You earn more respect when you wear your mistake/error and let it be known that you’ve learned from it and are going to keep improving.

Learning from previous mistakes is another aspect of success that people don’t want to talk about that much, for obvious reasons.

People, please, please don’t be afraid to fail because if you’re putting in every last ounce of effort and intelligence you have in what you’re doing, you’re going to initially fail. It’s ok, we’re human beings. Because if you don’t initially fail, then try harder and elevate your standards!

Lots of being successful is understanding that failure will happen, and then being willing to learn from it and change parts of yourself if needed.

Something else to learn from in terms of being successful is being able to take blunt/harsh criticism. For example, someone is changing career fields from higher education to communications and marketing, and has developed a website/portfolio that has all of their work on it to show to potential employers for the new industry he/she wants to go into.

That person does necessary networking with people in the industry and shows them their resume, cover letter, and portfolio, regardless of the limited experience they have in marketing and communications.

The network they had been speaking to (Charlie) says that their portfolio looks a bit unprofessional and could use some more work in the writing area followed up with some new skills they should work on possessing. Charlie has been in the marketing and communications field for years, and knows exactly what he’s talking about.

He isn’t saying ‘this is a horrible portfolio’ and just leaving it at that, because what good does that kind of criticism do?

When Charlie gives that kind of feedback or blunt criticism, answer first by thanking them and asking what it is that should be done better in order to better match up with competition in the industry.

If you don’t receive or even welcome blunt criticism, then how are you ever going to find out how you can improve yourself? These are people you trust or should trust that are here to help you and give you the guidance or advice you need.

Sometimes in order to get to heaven you have to go through hell. This is for those that strive to take that next step constantly and always want to be the best version of themselves possible.

If you want to be successful whether it’s with work, or friends, or family, or love life, or even a project you want to do for yourself, PLEASE be open to making changes, to criticism from peers, and learning from mistakes you will inevitably make.

Because the more open-minded you are and the more you strive, the more the positive impact will feel when you finally get what it is you wanted. If you put in the extra work, take the criticism and run with it, and go that extra mile, the impact will feel much greater than going through the motions. You will also feel better than ever and want to keep doing it again!

For those that go through the motions each day, to each their own, but they are missing out on a very beautiful aspect of life and that is the emotions surrounding the work and effort one puts into something they genuinely care about. You’re missing out on making a real difference in the world through suffering, persevering, and ultimately prevailing like you never have before.

Please don’t be afraid, and nowadays with social media you will see inspirational quotes and thoughts multiple times a day. Take a look at them and give yourself a boost… you deserve it!

Then once you achieve the success that you worked for, how are you going to handle it?