What is Success?
A question and answer with myself.
Success in our current world has been defined for some time now by individualistic ownership of property and/or things (not a formal definition). If you don’t own property, but you own a lot of things then that by western standards is a way to measure success. I don’t understand why that is because we really don’t own anything, we don’t even own our body. We are not our body, we don’t own it and it definitely doesn't last forever, and is fairly fragile.
It seems that our ancestors, especially those living in a tribal or collective/communal type situation, success was measured as to what extent the group was benefitted instead of individual accomplishment or individual property gain, but I am probably romanticizing that. In this era it’s what is mine and not yours as opposed to what is ours and what is best for everyone or at least most, and no I am not talking about communism or some kind of utopia. Tribal or collective/communal types of civilization require one to think outside themselves, it requires one to recognize that others also have important needs and wants that are equal to or greater than their own.
In our society living together with relatives or taking in aging parents is looked down upon yet spending a life’s savings worth of money to house our elderly in in a nursing or “care” facility for a few years until they die alone is looked upon as ideal. To me that doesn't make any sense. I have seen people just drop off their loved ones never to return again until it is time to deal with the material possessions left behind by the person that you abandoned. However, I do understand the need to outsource a heavier level of care such as memory care and of course Hospice and Palliative care. Nonetheless, back to my question, What is success?
I think success can be defined as the accomplishment of aim or purpose in any given endeavor. But that may just apply to personal successes. If that is personal success then what is success as defined by the world outside yourself or as defined by society. Success, by in large I think, is determined as the perceived ability to take care of oneself beyond meeting your most basic needs, essentially the ability to buy toys or unnecessary items for the sake of pleasure, but that is a very Western definition.
I guess my answer to myself would be this: Success to me would be to have the means and abilities to meet all of the needs of my family and some of the more extravagant wants of myself, wife, and child. It would be to be able to take care, without worry, of people close to me as well as to find joy and ultimately satisfaction.