Success: A Nature of the Self

“~300 days to go, ~300 short term goals to achieve, ~300 days of success”

My definition of success, if it can defined at all, is that it is an intangible realization of appreciation for the things that we have but so easily ignore. A school of thought that I am deeply interested in is called Transcendentalism which essentially says:

“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs - that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself.”

I have also witnessed that it does not work well for me to have a very narrowed down and tangible long- term goal. Instead, I work upon every day short term goals that eventually lead to long term achievements. Simply put, each day should be better than the previous on the learning curve. The way to check for betterment, or what modern day lingo would call as KPI, is again highly intangible. If I get to bed and up from it with an unexplained sense of hope, I have achieved the day’s success. Interestingly, one of the most efficient philosophies of managing long term goals, Kaizen, is also based on the above concept.

To me, the best part of this is that it leaves very less scope for us to view success as a long-term binary reality that if we don’t achieve, shall leave us devastated. After all, success is the journey that is meant to keep us motivated each day leaving us a better individual than before. It is never about the destination.

Drawing a parallel with my time at ISB: While we all desire a good grade or a good placement, the intangibles of this one year are what we really are here for. The ability to handle loads of activities at a time, the willingness to do something way beyond your comfort zone irrespective of whether you do it well or not, the bonds that we form and expect to sustain for a lifetime, the broadening of perspectives, and so much more. Sure, good grades would be the icing on the cake, but not having them wouldn’t really make my time at ISB any less successful if I have achieved the above-mentioned intangibles.