Count the hearts that smiled

I refuse to chase after others' idea of success.

Not because its too hard, but because I will never win,

I am not guaranteed to win in a game who's rules are set by someone else, and that person is not a friend and definitely not one that cares for my well being.

I beleive that in living, we should all determine what matters for us, for outside of what you do, what you accomplish and what you put out into the world, who are you?

Are you a collection of ideologies , thought, preferences and passions of others? Do you really enjoy who you are? What you do and what you accomplish? Do you truly care for those things that presumably bind you down to the grind you subject youself to?

are you a collection of opinions and thought taken from everywhere except where it matters ? I personally think, in my quest of self discovery, l have seen, interacted with and been a close friend and accomplice of dying dreams, broken hearts, despair, hopelessness and a general existence of angst that a-lot of coping mechanisms have been unable to help process nor solve.

But eventrally. I dont think I want to live a "normal" or "abnormal" life. I want to impact s touch as many lives as I can. It could be through my work, my creations, the words I say, the actions I do or my mere presence, and therefore measure success by how many smiles, how many dreams others have that I expedite, how mary souls I help save, how much love I show, how much impact I have in the lives of those I come into close contact with.

Whenever life get too busy, or when I am reminded of peers 'ahead' and peers "behind" whenever the weight of loss or unrealized potential, whenever the world screams 'failure’ and the crowds chant in unison, I choose to always remember to not count the accolades, the trophies, the conquest big or small nor take the failures and missed marks to heart, I just...

Just count the hearts that smiled.