An (incomplete) meditation on my definition of success.
I’m not even very old — but I recently noticed that I’ve already gone through several definitions of “success” in my life, as I was finding my way in this world.
Here are a few things I’ve learned (and I’ll probably keep revising this list forever):
1. Once I accepted my mortality — I’m not “death proof” and the reaper could indeed show up any day (even tomorrow) unannounced — a lot of things I thought of as being successful, were no longer important to me.
2. One huge aspect of success for me now is physical health and movement. We’ve been given a unique human body, and it would be a pity to not explore its full potential (both functional and aesthetic) before we kick the dust.
“Working out” for me is now like a meditation — a practice of exploring my own body, really noticing how my muscles react to different stresses and demands.
I feel like I genuinely learn something new about my body every time I work out, which is awesome. I regret not having done this sooner, but better late than never.
3. Another aspect of success for me now is being able to “live as many lives as I can.” I’m not attached to a single identity or “career” for myself. I would love to keep reinventing myself every few years to experience the full breadth (or at least as much as possible) of the human experience. This category also includes traveling, reading lots of books and history, and meeting lots of people.
4. (Somewhat contradictory to #3) While I love exploring diverse projects and reinventing myself, another big part of success for me is endeavors that demand total obsession.
A big endeavor is an adventure in itself. it shapes your character and helps you further explore who you are as a person. There’s also something really fulfilling and energizing about that obsessed, hyper-focused, high-performance state of living.
As Kobe Bryant used to say to his trainer: life is a series of SPRINTS. I do think now that life is too short for marathons (metaphorically).
Anyway, that’s all for my musings for the day. 🙂
