The Changing Perception of Success
[Music]
before i begin
i want to do a little experiment
everybody willing
great close your eyes come on i mean all
of you close your eyes
take yourself back to when you were 8 or
9 years old
try and remember what did you want to be
when you grew up
now raise your hand if you are that
profession or if you have that exact
same goal in mind
that’s not very many people how do we
measure success
is it by our dreams and occupations
would our lives be happier if we were
that eight or nine year old dream
my name is ragavidan duboina and today i
want to talk about how we can get to
what ultimately makes us feel successful
and how we can measure that said success
so where do we even begin when measuring
success
well the first step is to determine what
your values and priorities are
when i was in elementary school i really
wanted to be a school teacher
whenever i imagined myself as an adult
it was always as a happy teacher
even if it was just an eight or nine
year old me teaching to my room full of
invisible students
teaching was something i truly enjoyed
and loved because i loved the leadership
aspect that the job had to offer
however as i grew older i began to
realize that certain aspects of the
dream
no longer suited my my values which had
understandably shifted
as my view on the world had changed as i
grew older
quite frankly the money aspect of the
job no longer suited my desire
so it changed paths i went from wanting
to be
a teacher to wanting to go into a
business management career
it offers me the best of both worlds a
platform for me to demonstrate my
leadership qualities to guide others
and a desirable salary now imagine if i
had kept going down the teacher path
i wouldn’t have been happy because i
would have ended up putting my time and
effort
into goals that truly didn’t reflect
what i wanted
although it may be difficult it’s
important for one to stay connected to
their shifting values and desires
by staying connected to my shifting
values and desires and being honest with
myself
i created a pathway that allows me to
determine whether what i do with my time
and effort
is truly leading to my personal success
or not
now the second step in measuring your
success is comparing yourself
only to yourself it seems to be human
tendency for us to compare ourselves to
everybody around us
for example i would often compare my gpa
and act scores to others around me
thinking that it was the best way for me
to measure my own progress
however i couldn’t be more wrong it’s
not an accurate measurement at all
true success is attained only through
knowing you did everything within the
limits of your abilities to becoming the
very best that you
are capable of being john wooden
wooden basically said that if you put
your standards for success
too unreasonably high based on other
people’s expectations
and achievements around you you’re
constantly going to fail and disappoint
yourself
instead of using others progress and
achievements as a benchmark against your
own
why not compare your present self to
your past self
that way you can oversee progress that
you’ve made and continue to make sure
that progress you make in the future
is not stagnant by keeping your
expectations realistic
and understanding the limits of your
abilities you can effectively measure
your own success
remember there isn’t some universal
equation that we can just plug all of
our life accomplishments into
to get a number indicating our level of
success
and while i do wish it were that simple
success is a layered and complicated
concept
and therefore requires a layered and
complicated procedure
to accurately measure and define it so
take the time to truly reflect upon
yourself understand
what are your values what are your
desires
understand and set reasonable
expectations for yourself
by knowing the limits of your abilities
then
go take the knowledge of yourself and
pursue the success that you desire
thank you all for giving me the time
today