It seems like the conflict here is between your inner definition of success and your culture’s definition of success. Maybe consider, what would constitute a successful life for you? Is it wealth, power, influence, fame, and material possessions? Or is it living a life of spiritual and personal peace, happiness, and joy?

I am a successful person, by what American culture defines as success. I have a professional degree, relatively high income, nuclear family, etc. But I can’t help but shake the notion that someone like living naked off the Nepali coast is having, on average, far more satisfying life experiences than I am. If that’s the case, who is doing it “right”? Is that “mediocre” person actually more successful than I am?

You have to figure that out for yourself, what you really want.