What is a successful life?
If a person said “I am successful” – what does the person mean?
If I ask you to imagine a successful life – what would it be like?
Can definition of success derived from all these type of questions duplicable across the population?
Absolutely, but the definition is entombed in all the responses from the entirety of humanity in the past, present and future.
The mass of humanity is at least 99.5 genetically related – hence the common denominator can be extracted.
It may sound absurd if not impossible to define in absolute term the definition of success for the mass of humanity.
In the current reality and at the present state of scientific progress, astonishing as it may seem, there is not an available option to get to the absolute definition of success.
The dilemma is similar to the search for one equation that explains the Universe by the physicists around the world.
Since the British Industrial Revolution started in the 17th century, slowly and surely the world moved away from the rituals and raw instinctive way of life – heavily relied on the wide range of new found scientific instruments for the navigation through a life span.
In just a little over two and a half century later, progresses have been made in many aspects of humanity.
Poverty is substantially reduced around the world when the Chinese successfully lifted its massive population out of scarcity and into the life of abundance in comparison to their predecessors in just 30 years ago.
In relative to the size of the current population, the world has not experience the type of epidemics which had the clout to decimate the population as happened in the earlier days of civilization.
As of 2019, it has been 74 years since the world participated in the mass killing of its own species with the end of World War II.
The average life span is doubled across the glove. Most people will have years of opportunity to pursue their personal endeavor beyond the species mandate purpose of procreation.
Any key performance indicators which can be used to measure the quality of life around the world in the first quarter of the 21st century – the results will conclusively confirm that biologically the entire earth population is living in the full bloom of prosperity – the human species is successful.
If the unified sum of the human species is successful, are the individual parts of the sum successful?
Absolutely, by simple logic it can be deduced that if the whole humanity is successful the majority of the parts are successful.
Indeed, the majority of the people around the glove are living a life their ancestors could only dreamed of in just a century ago.
The conundrum here is the success that trickled down to the parts from the species stratum is not clearly defined and understood by the majority of the individuals.
Hence, the majority of the population does not have the consciousness to recognize the following statement – it is an extraordinary time to be alive today in the 21st century.
An excellent analogy here is children who are born into wealthy families – most will take the favor circumstance for granted as long as their lives are sheltered in the bubble of wealth.
Without the statement “it is an extraordinary time to be alive today in the 21st century” served as the basis in the mindset, the free flow of creativity from the consciousness is stifled and the definition of success is nothing more than the lifelong pursuit of hedonism – only possible by the continuation of the species bubble of wealth.
In just three centuries ago, the majority of the population procreated soon after puberty. Most will die in the range of 30 to 40 years of age – right after the offspring set to depart into the world away from their cares.
The definition of success is simple –
- I had enough food resource to feed myself and my family
- I had mated
- I had lived long enough to reproduce an image of me
The above definition is actually a framework that emerged from the knowledge and experience accumulated through time from successive generations.
Moreover, the success of the framework is the demonstration of the species adoptive capability to the changing environments over the evolutionary timescale.
Let’s contrast the above definition of success to the lives in the 21st century.
The abundance of food in the 21st century is unimaginable by those who lived in just a century ago. The bounty of food is clearly and neatly displayed in the groceries stores in most part of the world – only a miniscule percentage of the population hunted for food with rocks, bows and arrows in the perilous terrain of jungles.
Since the early day of civilization that began the commune life style at massive scale, mates search and calling are happening at a typical visual distance.
The potential in securing a mate in the 21st century is happening at a blistering level in comparison to the prior generations – resulted in an explosion of the world population of 7.7 billion and counting.
Most people do not have to travel far and wide to find a potential mate.
Lastly, no one will die at the age of 40 soon after procreation. Unless the person is dealt with the genetic lottery of incurable health issues – most people will live far beyond the procreation years.
It can be said with high certainty that for any human being who will be born today in the 21st century and forward will continue with the definition of success that has worked exceptionally for the last hundreds thousands of years.
But clearly, the environment has drastically changed for the last 2 to 3 hundreds years with the remarkable advancement in medicine and technology.
The global average life span is in the range of 70 to 75 years – it 100 and greater in some area of the world.
Although food is plentiful, it is not free for all. The required resource is available only to people who can compete – it is not reasonable to expect the person to maintain his/her competitiveness in the latter years of life.
What will happen to the mate relationship beyond the procreation years? The sex and in turn the children were the basis foundation of the relationship in the first half of the game. What will be the replacement when the children moved on and the sex slow down in the later years?
Can the definition of success albeit outdate yet undoubtedly worked wondrously for past generation – be revised to meet the challenges of today and the progress of tomorrow?
Absolutely – let’s attempt to redesign the definition of success that was meant for the short lifespan of 35 to 40 years to work for today life expectancy.
- Financial security – I had enough food resource to feed myself and my family in the procreation years and the dignified life in the latter part of living.
- Relationship stability – I had mated and the bond with the partner outlasted the children, the sex – it transcended just moment longer than physical realm that defined the living.
- Longevity – I lived long enough to reproduce an image of me and just a little longer – to marvel at my own personal creation and the opportunity to be inspired with awe the collective creativity realized by the mass of humanity.
Let’s play the Game of Life!
