VIEWPOINT

How Do You Define Success?

SVETLANA PILYUGINA, MD
Chief Editor

SUCCESS — WE ALL WANT IT. It seems easily understood and readily recognized, yet it carries a personal and unique meaning to anyone attempting to define it. It seems simple, but it’s not. Perhaps the most meaningful step on the path to achieving success is to create your own definition. Understanding what success means to you is a process and a prerequisite to setting up a successful career and life. Take a break from the fast-paced rhythm of your daily life for a second and ask yourself — what makes me feel successful?

Is it respect and recognition from colleagues, trust and gratitude from patients, a loving relationship, a family, an ability to inspire others, free time for yourself, hobbies, great friends, a beautiful house, or a certain financial status? Success is also dynamic; at different times in our lives, it takes on various meanings. To gain a greater sense of fulfillment, our actions and goals must be aligned with our values and personal definition of success.

Maya Angelou offers us her own three-part definition. Having dedicated ourselves to the long road of becoming retina specialists, we’re likely to have covered the second and third. We’re truly fortunate to have not a just “job,” but a profession we love. What we do in terms of patient care, research and teaching is deeply gratifying. Taking the best possible care of each individual patient is the definition of our professional success at its most basic level. Beyond that, a “successful career” becomes a reflection of our personal goals and aspirations.

This leaves us with the last part of Maya Angelou’s thought, which because of the harried pace of our lives, may be overlooked. To attain success, you must like yourself. Doing so calls for a balance between a drive to achieve accomplishments in the professional world and fulfillment of your personal needs. Success and happiness are not synonymous. We must not forget to allow space in our lives for the simple things that make us happy and keep us going.

Success is the ability to make your life exactly the way you desire it to be. It is an ability to achieve the goals you set for yourself, while enjoying the process and finding satisfaction in the end result. Understanding your definition will help you on the path to being able to say: “Each day, I’m grateful for the people and opportunities in my life. I am fulfilled. I am successful."

New Retinal Physician is sponsored through unrestricted educational grants from Alcon and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals