My understanding of success

When I was a little girl, I lived with my grandmother and grandfather for the first years of my life. For a long time, I blamed my parents for abandoning me. Today I think these were the best and most important years of my life.

To my grandparents, I was the most beautiful, the smartest, the greatest. They raised me to believe I could do everything as nothing is impossible.

My view of the world was completely shaped through the lens of my grandmother and grandfather. The world seemed like an adventure, a challenge. I believed there was always a reward waiting out there somewhere: the more difficult the path, the greater the satisfaction of winning. I have always had goals, but it was not just the goal that was important. If you want to achieve success in life, it is necessary to have a purpose and set a deadline.

By ‘success’ I understand something that is completely different to everyone. I’m not referring to financial success, career, or fame in general. Success means reaching your goal within the set time frame. Without that, we can have a lifelong goal and never reach it.

Each of us is different and happiness is different to everyone. In my opinion, the pinnacle of success is being a happy person.

To achieve this, undeniably, it takes a great deal of self-confidence and the courage to make decisions in harmony with yourself. Nothing is impossible if you believe it can be yours. Thousands of people own apartments in Manhattan. If that’s my dream, then I must believe that I can live there too. How am I different from a balding gentleman in a slack sweater, or a botoxed lady with a poodle? If my dream is to live on the other side of the world, I must believe it’s within my reach. After all, there are people who already live there.

I think the only difference between those who achieve their success in life and those who don’t, is self-belief and absolute conviction that anything can happen.

We should tell our children they are beautiful, smart, and capable of achieving anything. Each of us has some talent. We should let our children discover it and discover it within ourselves every day. Let us not compare them and ourselves to others. Let us be proud of the individuals each of us are. The world would be boring if we were all the same!

Albert Einstein once said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid”.

It is never too late to chase dreams. Our dreams are our personal success. What is this life worth if we don’t feel truly accomplished at least once?

Nothing is impossible, it's just us setting limits for ourselves.

A bird sitting on a branch is never afraid the branch will break and it will fall. That’s because it unconditionally believes in its own ability to fly.