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