Nipuni Maniyamgama

2018170072

IFLS305(02)

WHAT IT WOULD MEAN TO LIVE SUCCESSFULLY

We live in a world, where everyone, chase for success. It is the nature of human being to desire
money, fame, power, education, relationships, and a thousand other things, without ever stopping to ask one
essential question, What is success ?. For me, growing out to be a youth today, amidst the influence of my
parents, teachers, friends, different environments, experiences and hard times have provided and changed my
opinions and answers to define success and what would mean to live successfully.

Throughout childhood being rich and to be able to do whatever I want was one of the most important
factors to living successfully. To achieve this, I used to study hard, since I was mostly influenced by my
parents.But growing up been a teen and being surrounded by friends from different backgrounds. I was met with
friends who came from wealthy backgrounds but wasn't happy because of family issues, etc.Through these, I
realized that money wasn't everything and it is impossible to solely define a successful life through money.

During the late teens,I had my agenda and idea of who and what I should be, because of the assumption
of success means obtaining a specific object, such as a job or social status and with the belief that if I get that
thing I will be successful. Even though I am lucky to say that I am majoring in a field that I prefer, I have plenty
of friends in university who doesn't like the career that they are about to pursue. I believe that although it is okay
to value the opinions and hopes of others, no one should ever necessarily adopt them as their own. Moreover, it
is never too late to change the career option if someone is not satisfied with it since it is important to do what we
truly love to achieve a successful life.

However, my personal opinion on all of the above means of defining a successful life took a huge turn
last week when I was sitting near the operation theatre, waiting for my turn to get the surgery. In that space sat
people from different ages, social status and educational backgrounds with all of their futures lying on the hand
of eye surgeon since a simple mistake could lead them to be blind and make everything they have achieved so
far meaningless. This incident made me realize two things, firstly I would not be reluctant to call a doctor who
does his service, for the best of his ability has achieved a successful career, not because of the huge sum he
earns, but because of saving thousands and thousands of human lives. Secondly, to lead a successful life, we
should help and care for each other,since that is the only thing that would define us after death and not a single
thing that we have stacked up until now.

In conclusion, ability to pursue a career, in which I can help and care for each other and leading a
moderate lifestyle with a happy and healthy family than chasing up money, social status, etc. are the means of
successful life according to my perspective.