How do you define success?

[NDR2]

My speech therapist asked me a question last time we met: How do I define success? I really don’t know the answer to that. Other people may define success as being lucrative in business or getting married and raising a family. But not everybody necessarily wants those things.

How do people here define success in your lives?

 

[Rodafina]

To me, success is simply wanting to stick around long enough to see tomorrow. When I close my eyes at night but I am positive I want them to open again, I know that I have had a very successful day.

 

[Luca]

To me, success is simply wanting to stick around long enough to see tomorrow. When I close my eyes at night but I am positive I want them to open again, I know that I have had a very successful day.

Yes, it is the same for me. And achieving personal goals, especially difficult ones. And triumph over adversity.

I don't have some of the same parameters others have for success; I don't feel the need to get married or have children, or even be in a relationship.

But I see reaching goals I have personally set for myself as success, and I see others' successes the same way. I just mentioned in another post how many successful people there are on this forum, and all of them have achieved a personal goal of some type, and overcome a significant obstacle. To me, that is true success.

 

[VictorR]

Beautiful responses @Rodafina and @Luca

I might add "to not be regularly be in a state of worrying" - basically that one is content, and their needs are met.

If someone is a billionaire with a trophy spouse, successful kids, big mansion, huge network, bunch of titles, etc. etc., but is constantly worrying about things, whether it be their next contract/deal, or anything else, could they truly be said to be successful?

 

[Atrapa Almas]

I like very much the success definition of the audio book "Lead the Field":

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.

The use of worthy here has nothing to do with money.

 

[Atrapa Almas]

Beautiful responses @Rodafina and @Luca

I might add "to not be regularly be in a state of worrying" - basically that one is content, and their needs are met.

If someone is a billionaire with a trophy spouse, successful kids, big mansion, huge network, bunch of titles, etc. etc., but is constantly worrying about things, whether it be their next contract/deal, or anything else, could they truly be said to be successful?

I would ask them. What other people/society think is not relevant to define their success.

Its like asking society to define our gender, as an example.

 

[Fino]

To be free from immediate suffering.

 

[VictorR]

I would ask them. What other people/society think is not relevant to define their success.

Its like asking society to define our gender, as an example.

Indeed, what for me might be a nightmare could very well be someone else's dream come true.

 

[Sherlock77]

I'll admit that I sometimes (often?) tend to judge my success by achievements... Something I have rather few of, compared to many other people I know... Or at least that's the way I feel sometimes...

But... I'm trying to get out of that thought pattern, as per what some people have already said

But the temptation is still there

 

[Suzanne]

Interesting question.

I recently was contemplating this very subject, due to a sister of mine, who is two years younger than me and we are SO different, that truly you would not believe we were related by blood.

She works for Warner Brothers, as a make up artist. She is highly talented; mixes with the rich and famous ( of course, lol if she is their make up artist). She learnt to drive as soon as she could and went around in crazy posh car. She was even in an article in a magazine, because when pregnant, they discovered a growth on the fetus head and when they removed it, it had hair, so it was probably a beginning of a cojoined twin. So, as magazines go, there were tons of pictures of her painting and I mean, she is out of this world, for drawing and painting. She is highly confident.

Then, there is me! I am unable to get a driving licence. I cannot earn money. I have aspergers; social anxiety and agraophobia.

However, she, who is that type of person, chose to ignore what was happening in the house and walk out, to save her own back! I was the one who ended up going to the police in the end and telling them what happened to us as children.

She serves the devil. I serve my Creator. Whilst her facebook page is covered with gore and blood ( that is what she does as a make up artist), I am teaching people about a beautiful hope for the future and was interviewed at my hall weds.

So, all in all, I see that I am FAR more successful than she is. But, the world will see that she is FAR more successful than I am.

 

[Metalhead]

Roof over my head, food in my kitchen, a livable income, a clean residence. I am more successful than so many other people in the world. Gotta appreciate the things many of us take for granted.

 

[LadyS]

Success is a double edge sword and subjective, isn't it? Hmm Everyone is successful at some things and have poor performances in other things. You could be internally worry free and satisfied with your life (what most would define as success) but have left a lot of collateral damage in achieving that (that others would see as unsuccessful). You could have everything someone else have dreamt of (success) but still be unhappy and unsatisfied with your life (no success).

Maybe we shouldn't see success as a destination, a final determination of something. Or even worry about achieving it at all. Just do your best and be your best.

 

[Sherlock77]

Roof over my head, food in my kitchen, a livable income, a clean residence. I am more successful than so many other people in the world. Gotta appreciate the things many of us take for granted.

So who do I compare myself to then? (a bad thing to do in the first place)

I tend to look up (compare) to people who are far more successful, in the eyes of the world, just for one example - because in circles I hang out in I see lots of that kind of success, the guy who owns a classic car worth more than $50K when I can barely scrape a penny together sometimes...

Yet I do have everything you just said too...

 

[Metalhead]

So who do I compare myself to then? (a bad thing to do in the first place)

I tend to look up (compare) to people who are far more successful, in the eyes of the world, just for one example - because in circles I hang out in I see lots of that kind of success, the guy who owns a classic car worth more than $50K when I can barely scrape a penny together sometimes...

Yet I do have everything you just said too...

Comparing oneself to others, you will always find some way to turn up short. Stop doing that.

 

[Sherlock77]

Comparing oneself to others, you will always find some way to turn up short. Stop doing that.

Yes, agreed, but still a struggle with me

 

[Suzanne]

So who do I compare myself to then? (a bad thing to do in the first place)

I tend to look up (compare) to people who are far more successful, in the eyes of the world, just for one example - because in circles I hang out in I see lots of that kind of success, the guy who owns a classic car worth more than $50K when I can barely scrape a penny together sometimes...

Yet I do have everything you just said too...

I used to do this with my successful sister; but of late, I seem to be turning it around and trying to bounce off her success.

 

[SusanLR]

When I was young, money was my measurement for success.
I would have made my own little world the way I wanted and not want for
anything material.
Anybody watch the series Second Chance?

Now successful goals are to be healthy, a decent place to live and good food.
Live to be old enough I probably wouldn't even worry about dying.
Enough money to achieve it. Don't need a mansion and the trappings now.

 

[Outdated]

I consider myself to be one of the most successful humans on the planet. I don't have to work although I can if I want to. I get to stay home all day smoking weed and playing games or I can do whatever else takes my fancy. I have cheap housing guaranteed for the remainder of my life without the responsibility or expense of owning my own home. I have guaranteed income for the rest of my life too.

I'm one of the few humans in this world who is truly free.

 

[AprilR]

Success is being up to your own standards and feeling like you belong in your own world

 

[Forest Cat]

Having a peaceful life. When I was younger success was measured in money and wins. But now it's just having a peaceful life and a home to live in.