What Is The Meaning Of Success?

The definition of being successful is different for everyone and that renders me speechless. It intrigues me to know how far each other’s definition for something we all strive for is.

Success, for me, is achieved when the mind has reached homeostasis, a state of satisfaction and equilibrium. I even believe that success is temporary and later flies far from our feet and stations at a new destination: the next goal or dream we wish to accomplish.

I was once assigned a project on American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I present this with my definition of success because from that day on, whenever I think of success, I automatically envision this pyramid.

Maslow presented this theory in his paper A Theory of Human Motivation in 1934, and I am here today in 2017 appreciating his belief as it allows me to express my thoughts in a better way.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs presents a pyramid with five subsequent levels and in a specific order. It basically states that in order to reach the state of “self-actualization,” we must meet previous needs. These include physiological, safety, love and belongingness, and self-esteem needs. Then, I realize that, behind every successful person or situation, such needs are present.

It is why I strongly believe that the first step is understanding ourselves and what our desires are. We must carry a strong will on our shoulders as a shield, similar to the sword of a knight because beginning is the biggest fight.

Consequently, our path to greatness is always painted with our loved ones, never a self-portrait. I slowly begin to illustrate what we go through before reaching success and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is my guideline.

Finally, we reach self-esteem, a feeling that speaks to us and says, “You have fallen, scraped your legs, people have laughed, but you have come a long way.”

Success for me is standing on a high hill covered in freshly watered grass that overlooks a forest representing our struggles, a pond representing our calms and a home representing where we come from as we watch the sun set at the end of the long journey.

At times I lack these needs and spend months emotionally tired, desperate and hungry for motivation of any kind. Then come times I call “waves of renovation” that wake me up one morning and energize me physically from my toes to my mind.

However, I see success in those who teach me every morning with  their intellectual experience to breed my knowledge. I live in a home that reeks of success with a pleasant aroma of greatness. And I envision success floating in the clouds, that I watch pass by, as I daydream with the professionalized career I work so hard for every day.

A wicked mind does not wait for motivation—it oils its gears to keep them from shutting down. And that is what success is to me.