What is success? How do you define success? In our society, we have been taught success is what you do and accomplish-a very popular idea in our world. We have been taught you are successful if you have a lot of money, a home, a healthy family, a trouble-free lifestyle, and a healthy body. In other words, success has usually been defined by external conditions of life and achievement rather than inner workings of your being. Success is defined by doing rather than being. And this is where we have perhaps made a major in our thinking.
It began as a student in school, a place, for children like myself, to discover and explore themselves in a way that would for some kind of recognition-absent at home. School was the first place I can say introduced me to idea of success and failure. And I sense it is the case for millions of kids in this country. Success was defined by my ability to memorize, think, calculate, and complete my assignments. Success was doing what my teacher asked me to do. Success was measured with plus and minuses, alphabets, and numbers. It was a simple system that makes an impact on a child's self-image. And this impact can last for years if you don't understand and realized the manipulation involved in such an idea and the truth.
Success, in our country, is based upon the Christian concepts of heaven and hell, good and evil. How could this be? How could this be? Hmmm...let's see. If you don't do your work, what happens? You flunk the class. You don't behave, you are a 'bad' student, a trouble-maker, in many ways who needs discipline. School was simply an extension of religious institutions. In Christian faith, if you want to get to heaven, you must do these things(rituals), commandments to get in heaven with the Lord God. If you don't do these things, you are not worthy of heaven, and so you go to hell.
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