The nature of success

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The questions emerged from this topic: viewtopic.php?t=382208&p=8392565#p8392560

What is success? How to define it? Is it something measureble or not? Objective or subjective? Can there be some criteria defined to determine one as "successful" or "unsuccessful"?

"successful" is a vague and subjective word

The dictionary definition does not specify a measurement method

Some counselors told me to come up with my own definition of successful

Not "your sister is so smart. Why are you not like that?"

But coming up with your own definition of successful, usually means lowering the standard



Counselor Jamie Adair told me that "smart" means "not completely stupid". Not in the dictionary. Continuum, not binary. Dualism.


Lil dipshit counselors are so manipulative arrogant judgmental entitled lil ass holes

First you need to define success, and that act of defining it is subjective. Reproductive success is easy to define objectively, for example, but whether "reproductive success" is a good measure of success generally is up for debate. I think almost everyone would agree that it isn't.

Similarly, business success, or sporting success, or political success. You can say "business a is more successful because it makes more money than business b", but you can't say "Apple is more successful than Roger Federer" with any meaning.

I think it must be relative.

For instance: I am now 6 years 2 mos and some odd days on the other side of an addiction to prescription opiates. My recovery program tells me that every day I do not pick up a drink or a drug, I am a raging success. Because if I use drugs, everything I have worked for will be lost again.

Another example for me would be staving off the urges to tell people I work with (when I'm working) to go hang. If I tell them that, I will get into trouble again and be unemployed (like now). Having a degree and a license doesn't make me successful if I can't work.

I had to move away from the idea that success was the end result for a while. Lately, success/failure has just been any action that moves me closure to or farther away from my goal (which is to work and be able to take care of myself were something to happen to my husband).

It’s highly subjective.

It’s a matter of what people feel, for the most part.

I’m successful in some ways, unsuccessful in others.

Other people might think I’m more successful than I think. Others might feel I am less successful than what I think.

If you’re a mass murderer serving a life sentence, most people would find you to be unsuccessful. The mass murderer, however, might feel very much differently.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 20 Nov 2019, 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Merriam-Webster is your friend...

success noun
suc·​cess | \ sək-ˈses \
Definition of success
1a: degree or measure of succeeding
1b: favorable or desired outcome; also : the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence
2: one that succeeds

Okay ... so that's a fairly broad objective definition, so it's fair to narrow it down with a little subjective re-definition.

I see 'success' as achieving or exceeding one's desired goals.  If your goal is to finish a race, and you run the race to the end, then you have succeeded.  If your goal was to win the race and you came in second, then you did not succeed.  Simple.

It gets complicated when you start comparing your achievements someone else's achievements, or when you start measuring your success by some arbitrary standards set by your culture.  Let's say you won that race I mentioned.  Great, huh?  But what if your time was a fraction of a second more than the time of last year's winner -- did you succeed?  What if 'society' dictates that even though you won the race, the race itself somehow doesn't matter because it was 'only' a charity event, and not the Olympics -- did you succeed?

When I used to let 'society' (i.e., parents, relative, classmates, et cetera) dictate the standards of success, I was miserable.  When I started setting my own standards of success (e.g., several smaller goals instead of one bigger goal), my outlook and attitude began to improve.  With those improvements, my self-image improved, as well.  With a progressively better self-image, I started setting progressively higher goals and succeeding at them! With each success, the failures mattered progressively less.

Advice?  Start with small goals that you know you can attain, and master attaining those goals.  Use what you've learned to take on bigger goals.  Don't let lack of success stop you; keep trying and never give up until you succeed.  If you find that success eludes you no matter how hard you try, set smaller goals and try again.

Never give up on yourself.

Well, I'm not a Mars colonist writing poetry, singing opera and doing science all at the same time
At some moment, re-evaluating your goals is a very important part, I think.

I have achieved far below what my aspirations were.

Still, I still count myself somewhat successful overall.

^^^ For me the difficulty lies in breaking things down to smaller, more achievable, chunks . Prioritising what that should exclude and include.

I'm highly successful in howling like a wolf

I'm not very successful in doing theoretical mathematics.

For "Grins & Giggles"...

Scientific Method for Research

1. Collect information, make observations, and ask questions.
2. Formulate a new hypothesis.
3. Design experiment to test hypothesis.
4. Conduct experiment.
5. Did the actual results meet or exceed the expected results?
    a. If 'No' re-define hypothesis and return to Step 4.
    b. If 'Yes', go to Step 6.
6. Report findings.
7. Did the peer-review study verify the findings?
    a. If 'No' re-define hypothesis and return to Step 4.
    b. If 'Yes', conduct additional experiments based on hypothesis.
8. Humbly accept Nobel Award.

Scientific Method for Success

1. Observe others' successes.
2. Collect information and ask questions.
3. Set a reasonable goal for yourself.
4. Determine a reasonable plan to achieve the goal.
5. Work towards the goal.
6. Did the actual results meet or exceed the planned results?
    a. If 'No' re-define the plan and return to Step 5.
    b. If 'Yes', go to Step 7.
7. Brag to others.
8. Party on.