What is success?
Eko Cahyono
Education Policy research, Strategic Planning, Project Monitoring & Evaluation, Project Performance Assessment Framework, Capacity Building
Quite often when we talk about success with friends, family or random people, the tendency limiting the success to desire, possession, and achievement. Let investigate what most people perceive of success.
Desire
When I can buy what ever I want such as luxurious vehicle, great house, or other items I wanted, it is called success. What ever I want is the moving of our desire inside space within time constraint. Desire is the most basic instinct of living creature, to survive we need to eat. Desire to survive exist in all kinds of organism, from single cell, multi cells and even complex creature like us human being. So, we inherit desire within our DNA from our ancestor and we can’t remove it as our existence and consciousness. The fulfillment of Desire is the most dominant attribute to success.
Possession
Possession is most popular attribute to success, for example some people might say you are success because you have anything like beautiful wife or husband, talented children, big house, nice car, master’s degree and so on. Possession may be like desire, but possession led the individual to put desire into action. Unfortunately, in the name of possession most human ignoring them self human being values, downgrade themselves as animal, kill each other to possess what their desire dictated. Possession only brings chaos and suffering, and desire to possess also sustain the attachment to suffering.
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Achievement
So now you just inaugurated as PhD or master or bachelor, completed higher education where less people may reach. ?Or finally you reached leader position in your organization, make you feel extraordinary and achievement. Quite often family gathering always talk about it: wonderful our nephew just graduated master’s degree from reputable university, wow your car is so excellent, full of upgrading items, and so on.
So, success is meaningless if those three key words involve in our perception. Success is not fulfillment of desire, nor possession, nor achievement. Then, what is success? Success is when human being able to detach conditioning and end desire, possession and achievement.
Na duhkha, samudaya nirodha marga