On the Precipice

He told us he was looking for people, “on the precipice of success.” I looked around the room, everyone seemed to agree with him that they were indeed on the precipice, one small step away, one precipy (pro-nounced: pre-ci-pie) away from success. I slumped back down on the couch that I was sitting in, hair pointing in all directions, whichever way the pillow pushed them the night before, my jacket from Ross with a new stain on the right chest area, and I thought to myself, “am I on the precipice of success?”

I don’t actually know how far the precipice is from success. Can it be measured in yards? Feet? Inches? Or can it only be measured metrically? Am I fit to be a mentor if I am not on the precipice of success? Will the mentee know if I am not that close to success, but actually a few steps, maybe even a couple kilograms away (wrong metric thingy?)? I hope not.

How do you define success? How do I define success? I guess the answer we are supposed to say is something like, “success is being in a loving relationship with God, and following his will.” For that you get a pat on the back, maybe even a thumbs up, and then you are off to your job in a cubicle that may or may not make you want to take that pencil you just sharpened for the 30th time and shove it down any of your respective cavities in your body till you forget where you are wake up in the ER. And no, the people in the ER will not think you are successful, and they most certainly will not give you a thumbs up, unless they are taking a Polaroid picture with you to put up on their wall at home entitled: “Me with guy/girl with pencil in their ___ (insert wherever pencil was stuck)”

That was probably a little too gross. But I guess what I am trying to get at is that there are so many varying definitions out there, be it from society, from church, from your parents, your friends, your enemies, your horoscope, that it may or may not make you happy to be “successful” depending on whose definition of success you are going from. So. Here is my proposal. As a Christian I believe that God has given us talents, and that God wants us to be happy, or to have joy in our life (which can come through suffering, see Paul). It is my opinion that many of us sacrifice what makes us truly happy to be a “successful” person by someone or something’s definition, other than our own. So, if there is a way to do (I realize that everyone’s circumstances are different, and the reality of doing what I am about to say may be of very limited scope, but bear with me) that which makes you happy, or that gives you joy in your life, no matter what it is, I am starting to believe that that is “success.”

So am I on the precipice of success? I think so. I am slowly working towards it. First I have to know what success is to me, and I think that is a process in and of itself. We are told to work towards being successful, but what if we have to work towards defining success for ourselves first, before we can work towards being successful, before we can stand on the precipice of success and nod affirmingly as the strange man at the front of the room as he looks out over his audience and says that I am exactly what he is looking for.

~ by kevinthomas on February 24, 2006.