Should Success Be Defined By Timeline?

‘TIME is an Illusion’ said Einstein. I was too naïve to understand it during our Physics class back in the school days. Books taught ‘Time is Relative’, but just for the sake back then I memorized that time is relative. However, it is now that I understand the concept of time being relative. It is not uniform for everyone. In simpler words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference. Someday you feel the clock moves faster than a rocket and somedays it moves slower than a snail. So do you really think, Should Success Be Defined By Timeline?

The other day having a conversation with my parents. I was telling them how I didn’t realize the year passed on so quickly. Earlier, I felt I waited very long for my next birthday to come. Unlike now when it feels like coming so soon.

When time frame is different for every person why have we as a society made a standard rule of someone’s success in limited time span? More surprisingly what may not look success to you may be achievement for someone else. It’s not necessary that everyone should follow ia pre-defined timeframe for achieving success.

The modern upbringing expects success at higher pace. Parents and teachers fill the young ones with the idea of being competitive, and producing results within a certain time period. To some it may be a golden rule but not everyone can cope up with the speed. It becomes burden to them and they aren’t able to understand their potential, interests and capabilities to achieve success.

When you start comparing yourself with others, you get distracted from your path. Everyone has their own path to walk on, and it should be the voice from within that should say to you –  “I’ll do my work to get success I desire for; I’ll not be bothered about others opinion, and importantly I will not compare myself with others”.

Mark Zuckerberg became successful early in his age and this developed an idea of bias in people’s mind. According to their perception those who do good early in their careers are the only successful people. It’s his smartness, hard work and dedication which led him there, along with several other factors which may or may not be present for others. The point we need to understand is that these biases are sickening the minds of others leading to severe mental health issues.

Many of us worry that if I don’t achieve ‘success’ in a defined time span, my time will pass. In reality, the idea of success is very abstract and it can’t be weighed in according to someone else’s expectations. You have to be little easy on defining success on the scale of time.

Here are some example of people who became successful in later years of their  career –

• Stan Lee – The godfather of Marvel comics didn’t create his first comic till he was 39.
• Ray Kroc – The founder of legendry McDonalds didn’t purchase the burger and shake franchise until he was 52.
• Colonel Sanders – the gleeful mascot of KFC franchised KFC when he was 62
• Irfan Khan – Joined movies when he was just 18, but did some of his best work much later in his late 30’s.

If we eliminate the idea of a timeline for achieving things, we will be able to learn tons of new things instead of focusing on time alone. Don’t let others set your goals. Build your life around the things which make you successful regardless of time. Never feel you are behind others because everyone is playing their own game. Everyone has their own circumstances and success criteria. Some would be successful if they can defend each ball while others would count hitting hard sixes on each ball as their success criteria. To each their own !!!

Also read, Determination is Key to Success

One Life. Live Boundless.