Growing up, my mother always told me "Hard work pays off!". Which has evidently led to me acquiring similar values regarding success. While in our youth it is very easy to have that be the answer to everything, but what we fail to realize is that over time people's definition of hard work evolves due to their goals and what is needed to meet them.
Goals are a product of the environment and culture we are exposed to in the developmental years of our lives, usually coupled with the idea of improvement. What one person might view as a "downgrade" from their status quo could be considered an "upgrade" for many other individuals.
For example, I grew up in the suburbs of Miami, FL; I lived in a townhouse with my mother, father, and sister for the majority of my childhood. Attending public school my entire life I was exposed to a culturally and socio-economically diverse population.
In my hometown, almost everyone stays in Florida for college. I was lucky enough to have received the opportunity to be able to attend Syracuse University in New York. Most of the students in my hometown aimed for Universities/Colleges in Florida because that was the status quo for applying to college in their environment. I didn't attend high school in my hometown, I was fortunate enough to have been accepted to a prestigious, nationally ranked public high school.
Attending that school exposed me to the idea of leaving Florida for college and maybe forever. Providing me with a sense of confidence in my abilities and comfort in the idea of leaving, my high school assisted me in making going to my top choice institution possible. Simply because of where I went to high school, I was exposed to a different way of thinking, resulting in me attending Syracuse University.
On the other hand, I am now at Syracuse University and am exposed to an entirely different compilation of people from varying backgrounds. Here I have met people who have attended high schools in which they are one of the few graduates who didn't attend Ivy League institutions, and they feel that they have "downgraded" from what their status quo was in their environment.
The point I am trying to make here is that people's goals vary and therefore the phrase "hard work" becomes subjective later on in life, the achievement of a goal in itself is usually a result of hard work. As a society, we are consumed with this idea that life is a race and you must be doing better than the person beside you, but the real discussion is whether or not the distance from their start to the finish line is equal to yours.
It is pointless to race someone who is not running the same track; when speaking about the success we must keep in mind that it is subjective.
Relating to the previous example, people who get accepted to state schools work hard and people who get accepted to Ivy Leagues work hard. Success is simply self-improvement or satisfaction; ending up in a better place than where you began or ending content with where you have landed. Whether it be financial, emotional, mental, academic or physical, you are your only competition. Once you start to focus on yourself, your work and your goals, it will be easier to acknowledge your own success.
The idea of "success" is simply a construct created by the media to foster this insecurity in individuals, so they crave this unattainable lifestyle, that they can become closer to reaching by obtaining these luxurious and goods and services. The promotion of success is basically a marketing campaign for the latest Gucci belt. Keep all of that in mind, create your own definition for success and then chase it. Namaste on your grind and stay humble but hardworking.
