WHY WE SHOULD ACTIVELY BECOME AUTHORS OF OUR OWN AMBITIONS
& What is success?
As we forge through the transformative, tumultuous, and sometimes traumatic years of our twenties with our engines operating at full steam, it often seems to be that an inevitable fate is bound to befall us at some point in time.
Under the subtle yet strong influence of underlying messages propagated by a medley of external voices, we might have subconsciously allowed conventionally defined notions of success to gradually diffuse into our minds, insofar as we unquestioningly believe that our toils and tribulations of everyday are in fact leading us onward, forwards, and towards the one, eventual goal and vision that we all ultimately aspire.
How should we, then, go about identifying our priorities? Perhaps, the first and most fundamental question to ask ourselves is this:
What does success mean to you, and is your existing notion of success your very own?
Do you define success in the form of a lavish apartment, a fancy car, or the ability to continually possess the latest and most up-to-date in consumer, material goods? Does success present itself to you in the form of a lucrative, prestigious job that whisks away all semblance of personal time you could have, leaving no room for personal pursuits? Or would you identify a successful man on the basis of his having lived an impassioned, meaningful, and worthwhile life, who endlessly strives to make a positive difference in all that he does?
Success takes on a different definition in each of our individual dictionaries. To one, it could mean becoming a world class ice skater, a travel writer who is able to write freely without constraints, or, a marine biologist living on an abandoned island who is deeply engaged in his or her own research.
Yet to another, success could mean being a good mother, a wife, or a role model. Regardless of the diversity of these interpretations of success, the crux is that we should all endeavour to seek for ourselves our own personal definitions of what success entails, and subsequently, to strive towards it as best as we can.
In the same spirit, the Holstee Manifesto declares:
“This is your life. Do what you want and do it often.
If you don’t like something, change it.
If you don’t like your job, quit.
If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV.
If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.
Stop over-analysing, life is simple.
All emotions are beautiful.
When you eat, appreciate every last bite.
Life is simple.
Open your heart, mind and arms to new things and people, we are united in our differences.
Ask the next person you see what their passion is and share your inspiring dream with them.
Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself.
Some opportunities only come once, seize them.
Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them, so go out and start creating. Life is short, live your dream and wear your passion.”
Here we now stand, basking in the scintillating promise of possibilities. On this precious, precarious cusp, we wield the power to make our own decisions and choices, which would in turn determine our eventual success in actualising the desirable could-bes in our lives, or conversely, our failures, as we might as easily fall into the dark abyss of could-have-beens.
Turn a full circle: 360 degrees, infinite possibilities. Which direction would you take? Each small, seemingly imperceptible step that we now choose, every outwardly ordinary decision that we now make, in fact commands the tremendous power to amplify themselves in the resulting ripples of our lives, serving as a multiplier effect in the course of our lives thereafter. And therein lies the paramount importance of making conscious choices, pursuing our passions, and playing an active role in actualising our desired could-bes particularly at this stage of our lives.
A single decision made today could shift the direction towards which we chart by a mere degree at this point in time, but were we to fast forward our lives by a decade or two, this difference of one degree in our nascent trajectories could in fact lead us to drastically different outcomes, as we find ourselves facing two radically disparate beings with potentially contrasting lifestyles and perspectives, either of whom could be us of the future. At this point, one might even baulk at the prospect of these divergent outcomes having once began at the same starting line.
We are all but airplanes, beginning our journeys on the same runways, each of us choosing a different direction towards which to fly. We take our places, and we take off on our individual paths, lifting from the cement, finding ourselves free from the ground, buoyant, flying. Someone else’s flight coordinates could have differed from yours by just a few degrees, but today, your aircraft might be on route to Germany, approaching Europe, while the other glimpses the peaks of Kilimanjaro in the distance.
As we soar towards our respective visions, we should always be mindful to develop our own compasses in life, to regularly re-calibrate our coordinates, and most of all, to ceaselessly question the validity and authenticity of our notions of success. Ultimately, it is only in so doing are we able to truly become the authors of our very own ambitions.
You can get in touch with me via Twitter: @jorgevayron
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