Nate Farl's Definition of Success

Success is what we live for. In our 21st century lives, we need some sort of meaning to be happy, and that pretty much always involves succeeding in something, and bettering yourself in the process. Back in the good old days of peasantry and widespread poverty, if you were able to provide your family with an adequate amount of food from working in the fields, you would feel pretty good about your life. Nowadays, we crave something more than that: Success. Success can be a very tricky term to define. Merriam-Webster defines success as “one who succeeds.” While this is a very deep and extensive definition by itself, we were fortunate enough to be graced with another one anyway: “favorable or desired outcome” and “the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence.” Honestly I think it’s a perfectly fine definition if you don’t apply it to yourself. If you complete a task in the desired fashion, then you have succeeded. It’s only when you go into full philosopher mode when problems start to come up with attaining “success.”

As a teenager/Gen Zer/whippersnapper who does a whole lot of nothing with his life, I can understand this. I often find myself comparing some of the more disappointing or lackluster aspects of my life to other people’s. Because I'm comparing myself to the best aspects of multiple people, I’m essentially comparing myself to some sort of perfect entity, not recognizing the fallibility of those to whom I compare myself. Because I inadvertently expect myself to be so good in so many areas at once, I end up disappointing myself by not meeting this impossible standard. In essence, basing the standards you set for yourself on others will more often than not lead to disappointment.

So if you’re one of those people who doesn’t want their life to be perpetually disappointing, what can you do about this? Just create your own objectives. Don’t compare yourself to others, compare yourself to you. You’re the most important person in your life, believe it or not, and you should probably trust yourself. Doing this will not only create a more attainable and clear goa,l but also set you on a positive reinforcement cycle of self-betterment. When you’ve reached your first standard, it’s not like you’ll stay happy with where you stand forever. Fueled by the fulfillment of reaching your last goal, you’ll be ever more eager to continue.

See, sometimes I’ll be doing something in a certain video game that I'm either not the best or flat out terrible at, in an attempt to better myself. I’ll see other people effortlessly achieve what I struggle at. They might even manage to kill me (in the game, that is; I am still very much alive) in doing what I am trying to achieve. It can be frustrating, discouraging, and sometimes downright insulting. But then at the end of a round, I might see a little popup that reads, “You’ve scored __ points higher as ______ than in your previous best!”. It’s a small gesture, but it can mean a lot. It’s saying that it doesn’t matter how you compare to anyone else; you have improved, and you should feel good about yourself because of it (I will admit that this might not be the most productive place in my life I should be applying these strategies, but nonetheless it still works).

Anyways, this is certainly a good way to think about your own accomplishments in your own life, but the further we delve into it, the less it seems like “success.” As I stated before, the literal definition of success is fine; we don’t need to change it. I would call this more “satisfaction” than anything. But I digress. You should define success when applied to your own life as accomplishing external problems using internal guidelines.