SUCCESS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Success isn’t just about accomplishment. It’s also about how the things we do in our lives motivate & inspire others to do something motivating & inspiring in theirs. It’s about helping people you come in contact with. It’s about making other people’s lives better for having been a part of it. It’s about making a positive difference, no matter how small. Success has a lot more to do with what isn’t immediately visible than it does with trophies, awards, wealth, or material things. Every person is thinking different about being prosperous in life and is defining success in another way, so there can´t exist a definition that is suitable for all. It is somewhat like how we mean success based on our own goal and objective. The bottom line is that we should know exactly how to define success in life. There should be an awareness of what success and accomplishment in general means.
I define success as the opposite of failure, the status of having achieved and accomplished a goal or objective. Being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals. To some and is more common success can be a certain social status that describes a prosperous person that could also have gained fame for its favorable outcome. The dictionary describes success as the following: “attaining wealth, prosperity and/or fame”. Other people define success as having luxurious cars and a huge mansion, whereas others consider a life full of joy and happiness with their family, fulfilling their passion or simply by inspiring others as the true meaning of success. Once you have figured out what is important for you personally, then you are able to focus on your visions and goals and success will follow. Remember the movie “three Idiots, when their classmate Chatur boasted to Farhan and Raju how successful he is already after college, showing his mansion, luxury car and his position in a company that is very common whenever class reunions happen.
I can still recall when we were about to graduate from high school and were exited talking about reunions and alumni homecomings imagining ourselves attending with our own cars, bragging our positions in the fields we’ve chosen and how successful we have become already when all of a sudden a schoolmate refused to attend alumni homecoming, according to her she will not show up unless she’s already successful. I was amazed how firm she was with her words and determined to become a lady of success someday. I know our conversation was a challenge to each of us to work hard in college and will be able to accomplish our goals.
In my childhood, I can’t recall an instance that I was already thinking about who I want to be when I grow up. My goals then were simply to finish college with an unknown degree, to have a complete family of my own with two or three children and live a decent life. My idea of a decent life is just like the life we have, to be able to provide my family all their needs and consider some of their wants and send them to school. I can’t remember including having mansion, cars or expensive travel abroad in my goals when I was younger. Some changes and furnishing happened in high school when I was already certain of who I want to be and what life I want to live. One of my goals was to become a journalist, news writer to be specific. I had this list when I discover my potentials in our campus journalism and was inspired to take up mass communication for me to learn more about it.
I wasn’t able to pursue mass communication in college because I wasn’t able to pass UPCAT with the campus I have chosen plus the fact that mass communication is a quota course in Diliman. I felt bad about it and started some revisions in my list again, I took BS Nursing in a university in our place even if the only reason for me to become a nurse is to work abroad plus it was one of the most in demand courses that time and after a year, I got pregnant. I stopped schooling for a year to embrace my pregnancy and savor the moments I am with my baby inside me because after all I and my boyfriend then planned for it anyway. Yes, I have accomplished one of my goals already, to have a complete family.
My baby was about to turn one year old when we have decided to go back to school, I and my husband who actually hates schooling became classmates in BS Psychology. We played different roles that time, I was a student-mother and he was a student-barangay official. I wanted to start from the top, so I go back to zero. I was like a freshman again that time, fresh from failures and disappointments but was eager to move forward. I was happy being in Psychology program, I have learned a lot, I studied well, joined different school organizations and was even elected in our student council. We were able to finish the degree in time. My husband worked as a barangay councilor for his 2nd term and I worked as a volunteer in the guidance office and was hired as guidance staff. I wasn’t able to recognize every accomplishment I’ve had because I was so busy following the path that would lead me to accomplishing my goals. I never stopped schooling after graduation, because I believed that not unless I am already holding a permanent position in an office, that I am able to give my family a decent life.
I was given an item in the same university where I graduated as a Psychology instructor and designated as Guidance Counselor. I enrolled in two master’s degree already because no MA in Psychology was offered in our place until I was able to apply for a scholarship for me to be able to study masters which is vertically articulated to my undergrad. Now, I am here, studying in full scholarship, under study leave looking forward not only for the Degree after graduation but also for a permanent position and sooner a promotion.
Considering myself as an optimistic I think is what brought me here, although it wasn’t that easy because along the way I have experienced failures as a hindrance while I am walking my way to complete my listed goals. I have thought if I wasn’t able to experience failing or having difficulty while I’m on my way to where and who I am right now, maybe I have been somewhere and living a life without nothing to look back, I can’t be proud to share and will not inspire others. I will not be an extraordinary person who lived, struggled and survived despite all the hardships, loss, rejections and failures that I have experienced. I have learned to become positive no matter what and continue moving forward.
Accomplishment is often associated with success, but it is not the same. By definition, accomplishment refers to the results we desire when we attempt to reach specific goals. Basically it is the results that we plan or expect to occur. Success is the positive consequence or outcome of an achieved accomplishment and failure is the other way around. Accomplishment can be seen as the process to become successful and with every accomplished goal you take a step towards prosperity and a life full of success. Indeed success may have different definitions to us; this will never be defined by our position, bank accounts and degree holder children.
One of the most important things to be considered to achieve success in life is to know the meaning of success for your personal life. As I summarized the article I’ve read, the true meaning of success goes far beyond the common definitions of success, such as having a lot of money, being the boss in an office and having a lot of tangible assets and highest earned degrees. It is actually quite the opposite: true success in life cannot be measured with the above named factors, but instead with the amount of people that are able to life a better and more meaningful life because of what you created and how you surpassed every failures and difficulty you faced along the way. This is for me the meaning of success that I have accomplished right now. Not the trophies, awards and recognition from people that I have collected through the years, but the lessons I’ve learned and my experiences I am proud to share that would inspire others to realize that life is not about if you have become successful or failure but how you have used your failures as your armor towards accomplishing your goals.
To my conclusion, success is being able to reach what you want and to achieve your goals. Lots of people ask themselves the question "How can I be successful" without understanding that goal setting is an essential step that precedes success and without it you can’t really determine whether you are successful or not. There only one common thing between all of the successful people, they have failed many times before. I have read about successful persons today who have faced numerous rejections and failures in the beginning of their journey towards success they have today. It is about getting all that you wanted to have. It's finding that you have achieved your goals or fulfilled your plans and it's waking up in the morning feeling victorious and contented rather than feeling defeated. The feelings success brings will make you walk proudly in the streets with your head up high while being happy and satisfied as what they say.
I have realized that the road to success will probably be full of rejection, pain, hard work, disappointment as well as many other discouraging things but when you reach its end you will feel really happy and victorious. You will feel proud of yourself for overcoming all of these obstacles and for reaching your goals in spite of the many things that stood in your way. You will be tremendously happy and satisfied and you will experience the feelings described at the beginning of this article. In short, you will receive the reward of being successful. Everyone wants so many things these days, but they don’t seem willing to do the work to achieve them, maybe because they were too fascinated by the society’s notion of success that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It comes down to a growing disconnect between goals and the reality of what and how it takes to achieve them. True that life is what you make it, then success and accomplishments are how set your goals considering your happiness, work for it no matter what it takes and at the end you will see a contented life you have in your mind set. You will notice that you have attained real success when you see that you enable people to realize the truest meaning of a life better lived and when you feel loved and cared for as well as valued in what you are doing. As of now, I am contented, accomplished and happy with the life I have, with these I can proudly say I am living a successful life.