Success & Self-Evaluation

Life is full of self-evaluation.

We’re determined to examine what we have accomplished, and what we have done. The two things are different, right?

What we have done is simply what has occurred and what we have incurred. What we have accomplished is a completed positive impact task. So as the days flip by, are we evaluating ourselves on what we have done, or by what we have accomplished? It is possible that people feel rewarded and fulfilled simply by “doing”, and not by accomplishing.

When we die, our eulogists come to the microphone bearing stories of accomplishment. They also come bearing stories of just "doing". Sometimes those are the best stories to hear. “Johnny was a lawyer who won thousands of cases and was given these awards”. “Johnny loved to fish”. In the end, the “doing” sounds more like living than the accomplishing.

Bob Dylan said “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.” I think to truly appreciate this statement you have to absorb it in the proper way. It could be considered a little harsh of a representation as to how someone should evaluate their life, or an “Oh yeah easy for you to say” statement. Essentially, this should be a common goal, but expectedly is not attainable by all in the celebrity sense. Not everyone is gifted in the trade that allows them to do exactly what they want to do between sleeps. This does not mean their life is less valuable or successful in my opinion.

I have written before that I think in modern society it is important for people to find time to practice the hobbies and activities that they truly love and are passionate about. The flip side of that is that sometimes “doing what we want to do” does not keep us alive. We may love to strum the guitar and play folk songs, but others might not think we sound so good. That is why we accompany our past times with jobs and all-out careers. I would hate to say that someone who works between the hours of 8 a.m.-6 p.m. is wasting their lives. In fact, it makes me a bit angry to suggest that. Who is to be the judge of what is fulfilling another person?

So, the end game of Dylan’s quote should be interpreted as “What you’re doing isn’t wrong, but you need to want to be doing it, and know why.”.

Here is what I think is the most important thing about what we do from when we get up in the morning until we go to bed: surround ourselves with the right people.

It doesn’t matter what you choose to do with your day or how you choose to evaluate your life, but there has to be some importance in who affects it. We cannot always do what we want to do because we are part of a society. What we do has a direct impact on those we interact with. We are prone to love and we are prone to dislike. When we surround ourselves with people who we can positively interact with (on a social level) and people we can grow to love (maybe outside of a social network and into something more personal) we give ourselves the opportunity to escape each day feeling satisfied.

Maybe this is an innocent, naïve, or even ignorant suggestion. The people around us can hurt us or make us unhappy even when we think we have chosen them correctly and trusted them fully. Still though, I think when looking back on your life the parts you remember will be associated with the people involved.

So, as our lives try passing us by, we shall not let them do so, but instead allow them to flow with us. Simply “doing” our lives and being conscious within them can be enough. We do not need to allow others to judge for us, or lay out ground rules for success. Our self-evaluation is just that, incorporated by ourselves and altered by ourselves.

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