What is your definition of success?
I know everyone wants to be successful, but what exactly does that mean? For many people, success has something to do with money or power or fame, or some combination of the three, and they are convinced that that is what they’re after.
I have certainly heard people say they want to be successful so they can retire, that is for sure. It’s as though they seem to think if they earn enough money or get famous enough, or get enough power they will then be able to do things that fulfill them. It is important to be reminded that no one in fact going to live forever and that living most of their lives to get to a point in the future where they can then be fulfilled is a recipe for a life that i spent in the perpetual pursuit of it, rather than actually ever having it- rather like a carrot tied to the end of a stick just ahead of a horse so it will forever run after it.
My experience of those who are truly successful is actually quite different.
What I hear people who are truly successful say is that they are deeply fulfilled, fed and sustained by the work they do, that the success is never a goal… it is a lifestyle, a process that never ends. I have yet to hear any of them say they want to become “successful” so they can “retire”. Why would they want to retire from doing the things that, when they do them, give them a deep sense of who they are and how they are when they’re at their best?
My point here is not try and spout some one size fits all answer, but to challenge everyone to be aware of the questions they are asking themselves when gauging whether or not they are successful in their own lives.