Day 170 - success

I find it funny that most things, acts, words, opinions or etc., that are valued in this world, are usually things that fit into some formula of success, which we have made. I realised how much of what we value nowadays are actually things that are man made, money, physical possessions, even time in some respects. I was curious about this, and I looked up the formal definition of success in the dictionary, here's what most of the primary definitions said it is: 1. The achievement of something favourable or desired. A few definitions defined it also with achievement of wealth, but most had this as either a sub note or secondary definition. Why am I going on about this? Because we've been completely warped into believing that what the masses, society, culture, media, whoever describe as success, is in fact what will lead to a desired life. The more I thought about this, the more frustrated I became. There are so many unhappy people in this world, and I hate saying that, but it's true. And the reason I think, is because their vision of what is successful is in fact these physical and monetary vistas we have painted for ourselves. And its scary, because the only thing these goals we're aspiring towards are, are transient. Nothing we could ever make is everlasting or sustainable. The only things like our relationships, love, laughter and the other transcended things we experience on an non-physical are really everlasting. Sure your heart will break, but not like something physical. Love never really fades. A low income man surrounded by loved ones, never being alone a day in his life can't be compared to a single wealthy bachelor in his penthouse on our scale of success. It's like comparing apples to oranges And if the definition of success I quoted proves anything, is that success is subjective. Something favourable or desired can only be determined by the person achieving that goal. And I guess if monetary or worldly gain is on your list, then sure. But maybe we have just conditioned ourselves into believing that's what we really want. If it was, then why do we always seem to need more? If success means anything, it's satisfaction. And greed is the antithesis to that. What about waking up to someone who loves every bit of you, smiling as often as possible and meaning it, wanting to cry less, or knowing you have people in your life that would put their own lives on the line for you? Yeah I know, these are all extremely mushy things that we roll our eyes at or even glaze over when talking to people about where we want our lives to go. What does that actually say? Really though.