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Today's
quotation:
It takes courage to buck the tide, but once you
start to
experience the freedom that comes from actively creating
your
own interpretation of success, you’ll find it easy to
move on from
people who haven’t yet figured out that having
it all or spending
long hours at an unsatisfying job will never
define who they truly
are, no matter how high the pay.
Elaine St. James
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Today's
Meditation:
"Actively
creating your own interpretation of success."
These are words that none of us should miss, and that all
of us should pay close attention to. Do you define
success based on what other people call
"success," or do you know what you want to do
with your life and do your best to reach your goals on
your terms? Do you consider yourself a failure if
you don't reach other people's expectations, or are you
happy to be doing what you know to be important in your
life?
In
the academic world, for example, the most
"successful" people are those who are published
regularly, and who have built their reputations on a
nationwide level in their own fields. To me, though,
success in academics means reaching students, helping them
to learn what they need to learn, and helping them to
define and reach their goals. My definition of
success, then, always will make promotion much more
difficult, and it will make the possibility of getting
hired at other schools more difficult, but when I go home
in the afternoon I know that I've spent my time helping my
students rather than working on my own research for my own
gain. To me, that's what being a teacher is all
about, and though the academic world will not reward me
for having a student-centered approach, I know in my heart
that I've been successful, and that's what's important to
me.
Doing
things on our terms can be difficult, for other people
can't always be expected to understand where we're coming
from. But we have to define our own terms for
ourselves, and we have to live our lives for ourselves,
searching for our own contentment and satisfaction if
we're ever to be able to help others find theirs.
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