What does success mean?

The dictionary defines success as " favorable or desired outcome; also: the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence." https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/success.

When people think of success, many quickly jump to the conclusion of money, power, and the attainment of all that is great through one's self-effort. I think there's much more to success. Having grown up in an impoverished area of South Texas, I learned that success is much more than merely getting material objects. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy buying myself a video game every once in a while or eating at a fancy restaurant. I have nothing against indulging in life's greatest pleasures. But what does bother me is the fact that success is given an image that everyone should follow--a structured path that if not taken will inevitably lead you to a life of failure and dissatisfaction. Wrong.

South Texas is still my home, a place riddled with poverty. Even though what the mainstream definition or picture of "success" lacks in my birthplace, I've met incredible people with talents that I could never dream of attaining. Success comes in different shapes, colors, and sizes. For example, a teacher that I had during high school traveled more than 2,000 miles from his home to rural South Texas to teach at my low-income school. Some people, like myself, would find that successful. Others, not so much. Instead of focusing on what others think, focus on what you identify as a success. Find the topic or topics you want your story to echo and blare throughout your everyday life. Once you find the goal, that theme or topic you want to become good at or achieve, you need one other ingredient: PASSION.

How Can I Find My Success Story?

I'd like to start off by saying that I haven't found what success is to me. To get there, I believe we should all engage in creative and thoughtful thinking on what we want to attain as we go through our story. I ask myself questions to try and get there, slowly. To be frank, I've been at a standstill. Going to law school and enduring the constant work with little to no fulfillment gets rather old, really really quick. There isn't an immediate reward, and the long-term results aren't all that pleasing. Enough about me.

Now, some of you might think to yourselves: "Well, no duh. Success is different for everyone." And I'd like to remind you that even though we THINK something, do you truly believe that? Self-reflection is a powerful act. It's mentally engaging and stimulating, but it can also hurt since flaws are uncovered and dealing with who you are can get a little hairy. Even though it's difficult, give it a go. The returns are ten-fold, promise.

Passion is what makes you SHINE.

Once you have the goal of what you find is a success, keeping in mind success can be made up of several different goals in your life, you need the passion.

Passion if a fickle mistress. Just remember that it will change and sometimes trick you. Breaking away from the mainstream concept of success is hard. Try to break it and find your calling.

Passion. I find passion the number one skill that we can ever attain in life. If you can find the key to open up yourself to become passionate about what you do, the sky is the limit. If you look around at people who have succeeded in what they desire in life, you will first notice the enormous amount of work they put into their skill, career, happiness, family, religion, whatever they define as success. Don't be fooled, my friend. It's PASSION.

With passion, success will naturally flow from it. Passion gives your life that extra kick, the gasoline to a fire or the sugar to the coffee. Passion allows us to enjoy the actions that we take to get to our goal, the success we crave. It a way, passion gives us the ability to react in a positive way when we encounter obstacles that come up when progressing towards our success. Passion keeps you going, keeps you happy, and keeps you improving.

Finding passion in what you do is difficult, and it's a personal and complicated task. Finding what makes you "tick" is hard. As natural as the minute hand moves on a clock, your passion for acting towards your success should similarly react. It can take years, trial and error, and experience to find the passion within yourself, but it doesn't have to take too long. You can meditate, self-analyze, ask yourself questions about what you want, write out your thoughts and feelings, and converse with others to find how they found their passion. Hash out the details of your life to find the key to endless possibilities.

Please comment below on your thoughts! I love hearing other people's opinions and ideas. DISCUSS! :)

Passion can get you everything you want, you simply need to find it.