When do you feel like you have “made it” in life? Would you describe yourself as “successful?” Does the answer to these questions change with time? If you were asked these questions 5 or 10 years ago, would you answer them describing your current situation, but now that you have it, does it feel like “success” is another step away? Does happiness equal success, or does success make you happy?

I believe the answers to all of these questions are quite subjective and very different to everyone. So, how can we compare our success to another person’s success? If we do not see a person as successful in our eyes, does that mean they are not, and vice versa? Who gets to define “success” in life? I believe we can only define it for ourselves.

This pondering always takes me back to the troubling thought of “I’ll be happy when…” which leads to never being satisfied, and not allowing yourself to fully feel happy with where you are in life. I think setting goals and pushing ourselves to be great is healthy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate where you are right now. It’s a fine line between a healthy amount of drive for self-improvement, and never feeling like “enough.”