Back on the beach!
I arrived back in Miami Monday afternoon. I’m not entirely sure how I got here, each time I find myself driving on autopilot and realizing that I’ve made it and confused as to where the last 4 hours went! Perhaps that’s where the saying “Woman drivers, No survivors” came from… situations like this! Anyway, there were many casualties monday night… apparently eating Cheerios out of a wine glass results in a huge mess. Stop judging my lack of class, there were no bowls. Whilst abusing the 5 second rule I could not stop thinking about this short documentary I watched a year ago. This particular quote trapped in my head:
“I know you and dad will never feel I am successful, but if you could only understand my measure of success is different.”
Now, I’m not sure why eating Cheerios made me think of this, but is it not completely relatable? Have you ever realized that each person measures things differently? How do you measure your success? Is it how much money you make? Your job title? Your material objects? It really hit home and made me question what success is, after all how am I supposed to be successful if I can’t define my success? Now I know as humans, we are adaptive creatures. We are constantly changing and morphing to fit our circumstances, expanding and retracting values, goals, dreams etc. So our destination is always growing and always adapting with us, but having an idea of your success will help you better navigate to getting there.
I feel like society has pushed us into this little box, most Americans go to school until their 18. Our culture tells us that we have to go to college to make something of ourselves and get a good paying secure job. Then comes marriage and a dog and then a baby or two… or three. We feel like we have to follow this plan because it will be sure to give us success which in turn will bring us happiness. Those of us who do not have a college degree or a job title that looks good on paper are considered unsuccessful and failures to most of society. But what I’ve discovered so far is that I don’t need a powerful title, I do not need to be a millionaire, I do not need to have the newest electronics or take the more vacations. I don’t need a college degree and don’t need to follow the typical path to be a success. I measure mine differently. Those things are all nice and surely I wouldn’t turn them down, but my success comes from smaller, more meaningful things, like the ability to make others happy. I want to find and tap into the truest version of myself and leave everyone I come in contact with happier than they were before we met. With my job as a model, it is not about the dollar sign behind the jobs, it’s about creating something. I want to create things that help people, move people, and make people think in different ways. I want to create characters and images that I never thought I was capable of. I think the evolution of society has made us all forget that we are not machines. We are humans. Before there were cars and jobs and computers and Prada, we only had each other and the Earth. We are not invincible and we do not last. Those material things we worship do. All this from eating Cheerios out of a wine glass? I challenge you to define YOUR success and then move in that direction instead of the societal direction of money and power. I got excited and thought I pulled a George Bush with the word “societal” but it’s already in the dictionary! ):
Anyhow, I highly suggest you check out this super short 3 minute documentary:
and if you really want to get your brain moving try this one:
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/i_am_2010/
Told you!