Name: Wayne Cole

Assignment Name: Essay 3

What did I do? (Looking Back)

In essay three I wrote on the societal issue of the idea of ‘Success’.

How is it significant?

This is significant because success plays a major role in everyone’s life at one point or another and it is a word that is not fully understood. People can base their whole lifes on achieving success without first grasping the idea of success and where it comes from.

When have I done this kind of work before? Where could I use this again?

I have done this kind of work when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, thinking what would bring me the most success and why. I could use this information again when I am trying to inform someone about the definition of success and how they should go about achieving it.

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did? (what’s happening now, Present)

I do see relationships between the idea of success and my own idea of success as I researched and wrote the essay. Some of the forming ideas of success I had come to conclusions on, for instance the idea that success is the tackling of your personal ventures and not letting doors go unexplored.

How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

I believe that I did well. What worked for me in this essay was the topic that I chose to cover in the essay, as it had a profound impact on my life and the choices that I made and am making in regards to my own success. I could improve on incorporating more quotations from the research of the texts into my essay.

What should I do next? What’s my plan? (Looking forward, Future)

Next, I am looking forward to taking this new knowledge that I have gained and incorporating certain aspects into my daily life to improve my own mental state of success and hopefully find fulfillment in whatever I choose to do.

Wayne Cole

Comp 1 993

10/26/21

“What is Success?”

Success can be defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. We all go through life hoping to achieve it. For many this word is an ever defining factor in whether their life was well spent. If you aren’t a success then you must be a failure, it is a direct antonym for the word. However, society is starting to alter the implications of success. It is no longer a word of static definition, but rather a word that titers on a spectrum, a wide array of connections of choices that leads an individual to a path of accomplishment for the aim or purpose that they set out upon.

The “American Dream” is an anecdote of the changing ideals of success in America and perhaps around the world. In the colonial times of the 17th century the “American Dream” before its inception was the ideals of freedom from tyranny, freedom of religion, and the opportunity of new land. At the time this was the paramount of success, this purpose would create the colonies of British America that would eventually, after a grueling battle, lead to the United States of America. Where this “American Dream” would continue to morph into a symbol of ultimate success (Gale).

People continued to alter what it meant to be successful. To the point in the 20th century where a family, home, and work was all that was needed to be considered a success. Can you see how success continued to evolve to satisfy the criteria of achieving the next “big” thing. It is the stepping stones that directly correlates to America’s success as a country and will be eventually used to trace its decline.

Millennials are already showing signs of this with the shrinking of the middle class. Almost half of millennials in 2015 believed that the “American Dream” was dead. Believing that it is harder for them to get ahead and that surpassing their parents' success has become difficult (Gale). Nowadays the idea of success is no longer owning land or a home instead it is materialistic in nature. Having the best of the best is success. If you can’t keep up with the ultra wealthy you are deemed a failure. For the vast majority of individuals this means accumulating debt and not living within your means, trying to “keep up with the kardashians” if you will.

Only society can alter this lackluster definition that has been imprinted on the word success. As of late we have seen people start to shift their views on success in a world where the wealth gap has increased and the middle class have become outclassed. The pandemic has begun a shift in the workforce towards the employee’s favor, with millions of new job openings and people quitting their jobs in droves, society is starting to realize that they are valuable assets and can see themselves reevaluating and achieving goals to a new path of success that they never thought possible. The pandemic opened their eyes to a world where everything that they thought was important ceased to exist. Consumerism stood at a halt and Americans in particular saw an increase in savings and a new avenue to which they could spend their time, with family, hobbies, and new passions (Stolba).

Personally my own perception of success is an unshaped wonder. I just do not know what I want my success to be defined as, nor if I even want it to be defined at all. I do believe that a person should have set goals for themselves to achieve because without goals you can feel unguided and lack focus. I can recount times in my life where I was dead set on what I wanted my success story to be in life and being motivated to achieve that success. As of this year, however, I had lost the definition of success and what I considered that success to be in my mind. I wondered if by not following the path that I set out on so long ago was the right thing to do to find success in my life, to be fulfilled with myself. Going to college was not something that I initially wanted to do right out of highschool. Although, I was college bound, constantly stressing about my grades and always being that guy known for his success within the classroom. During the pandemic, I fell out of love with it all. The repetitiveness that is school, a part of life that I had developed a formula of success for. My last year of highschool my mind was made up on not going to college right out of highschool, but instead to join the military. This new path to success was something that I formulated to a great degree and decided to traverse. It was all or nothing in mind, my plan B was my plan A.

Going through the process of joining the military I thought was not going to be difficult, I was thinking way beyond; how long would I serve, what is going to be my job, With this ASVAB score I am eligible for so many options which should I take? Sometimes though things just never work out how you hope them to. I was sidelined by a medical condition that I had to get a waiver for. I went to the AirForce, then to the Army, and then to the Navy. No one could take me, god forbid I was not showing up to the Marines. I saw friends from High School leaving for the military last minute, so easily crossing a barrier that I was halted at. It was like watching someone else, one by one, take each opportunity you could never have. Established peers, right alongside me in graduation rankings, going off to college with great scholarships. Meanwhile, I was stuck. Do I go to college at the last minute? Should I keep heckling for this medical waiver, I’m in excellent physical shape, I could probably outrun, outlift, and outperform most of the people they were taking in. My path to success had to be redeveloped and fast or else I was going to drown in sadness and despair.

As you can tell I took the college route. Applied last minute and decided to pursue my older highschool version of success by going the path of academia, majoring in physics with a minor in maths. It can be hard to find your new muse and have to give it all up, not by choosing, but by fate. I had to live a tough lesson of learning that success is not defined by the position you hold, the money you make, the power you hold, but rather by following your goals and accomplishing them through failure or triumph. “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” A great quote by John Wooden that encapsulates success perfectly.

In order to begin your journey to success you need to improve in key areas of your life to help you achieve your goals.

A healthy mindset is paramount to a successful life (Hall). If your mind is in the right place, little could throw you off your path towards success. Being home caused many to ponder their relationships between family and work to decide which was of most importance to them. Causing a clear mindset for which these individuals could set their new goals upon. Having a healthy mindset is not just being in a good mental state, but also maintaining the attitudes and habits that you practiced with intention.

Respect in your career is the foundation in which you will achieve your success (Hall). If going into work everyday is a venture you hate partaking in, you more than likely feel no fulfillment in the work that you do. Meaning that you put in minimal effort and do not treat others in the highest of regards. This can make your job short-lived and stale. Eventually falling down a slope that you won’t seem to be able to get out of.

Surrounding yourself with solid people is important, not only for your success, but for your well-being (Hall). Investing too much time in people that you do not admire, respect, nor enjoy can be detrimental to your overall well-being. Having people in your life that you can trust and develop strong connections with can help you succeed in all avenues of life, as humans we are bound to another in more ways than not, being able to have individuals you can seek guidance, counsel, and examples from is what will separate a miserable person from a person living a life of success.

Success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. You can achieve success through failure, as long as you set out and try to become a better version of yourself. Do not let societies’ definition of success succumb you to the lifestyle of consumerism and debt, instead make success a word that drives you to live a life of fulfillment. Society may have set a false precedent for the word ‘Success’, but society is also helping in the altering of it.

Works Cited

Hall, John. “The Trend toward a New Definition of Success and Why It's Important to You.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 9 Sept. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2018/09/09/the-trend-toward-a-new-definition-of-success-and-why-its-important-to-you/?sh=2b5bbf5ce45c.

"How the American Dream Has Changed Over Time." Gale In Context Online Collection, Gale, 2016. Gale In Context: High School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ2181500191/SUIC?u=clov94514&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=76f376d4. Accessed 2 Nov. 2021.

Stolba, Stefan Lembo. “Average U.S. Consumer Debt Reaches New Record in 2020.” Experian, Experian, 21 May 2021, www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/research/consumer-debt-study/.

“What Is ‘Success’?” https://youtu.be/P8b4mZvrui4. Accessed 3 Nov. 2021.