Success, like everything else in this world is subjective. People define success in different ways and find different ways to reach their “success”. I believe that success starts and remains with the mind. My coach, a very very wise man, always approached me with life lessons and messages. Once he told me this quote: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful” (Albert Schweitzer). Ever since that moment, I tried to live by that. Therefore, my two steps to success are “introspection and reflection” and “living life”.
Introspection and Reflection
The act of “looking inside” and thinking about your own actions and inner thoughts is so important to me. I do it everyday at almost every moment - when I eat breakfast, brush my teeth, sit in class, shower and before I go to sleep. I believe that real learning comes from within. From your thoughts, actions, achievements, but most of all from your mistakes. And reflecting on all of these part of yourself is an important aspect of learning. Knowing and understanding yourself is important, because if you know what makes you happy and pursue that, you will be successful, in school, but most importantly, in life. Living Life
Living life sounds very broad, doesn’t it? Well, that again is subjective. Living life can be anything from cooking or painting to traveling the world. “Living life” is doing what makes you happy. And that’s exactly what I intend to do. Success to me isn’t owning a big house or a cruise, but containing knowledge and experiences and that one day I'll be able to say: “I don’t regret anything”. Therefore, my plan is to do the littlest things now that impact the big things later. And then when it’s “later” I’ll do all the things I want to do, and after I did all that and traveled around the globe, I’ll consider my life satisfactory and myself successful.