What is Success?

Posted By: Nancy
Date: Wednesday, 31 July 2002, at 4:38 a.m.

Everyone wants success. People talk about setting goals and positive
thinking and getting to the top. However, most of these same people
never really define what success means to them. Instead they think only
in terms of the next big promotion or the next raise or climbing the
corporate ladder, but few ever stop to really look at where these goals
are taking them.

World-renown motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says that to define
success, you should stand on the goal line of life and look into the end
zone. What you want to see there sets the parameters for your definition
of success.

In other words, ask most people what they want from life, and they will
say, “I want to be happy.” That’s great, except for two things: they
seldom know with any certainty what happiness actually means to them,
and secondly, they never actually plan to be happy.

Instead they fall into the when-I-get-over-there-then-I’ll-be-happy
syndrome. If you look, you see these kinds of people every day—maybe
even when you look in the mirror. “When I get that promotion, then I’ll
be happy.” “When the kids are back in school, and I can do this, then
I’ll be happy.” “When we get out of debt, then I’ll be happy.”

Problem is, it doesn’t work that way. If happiness is your goal; if
having been happy is something you really want to see in the end zone of
your life, then you have to start being happy today. Not tomorrow, not
in a week, not when “X” happens—TODAY.

So, how do you do this?

First, you must seriously ask yourself, what makes you happy? What makes
you feel alive and completely in touch with the essence of yourself?

Maybe it’s hiking or skateboarding or baseball or running. Maybe it’s
painting or music or writing or dance. Maybe it’s something as simple as
taking a cup of tea out to the porch to watch a sunset.

Immediately you say, “I don’t have time to do that stuff. I’m busy
making a living. I don’t have enough time as it is.” And then you wonder
why you aren’t happy.

If happiness is a goal you have, then you must schedule time every day
to do something that makes you happy. As Annie Dillard, the author of
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how
we spend our lives.”

The question to you then, is how are you spending your days? The reality
is that what you have right now is exactly what will be in that end zone
on your last day here. Is this what you want?

If so, congratulations! If not, you can start right here, right now to
make a new ending. Decide today what will be in your end zone, and then
make the changes to get that in your life today. You deserve it, but
don’t put it off. You don’t have a second to waste.

Messages In This Thread

What is Success?
Nancy -- Wednesday, 31 July 2002, at 4:38 a.m.

Re: What is Success?
Uncle Bob -- Wednesday, 31 July 2002, at 9:34 a.m.

Re: What is Success?
Nancy -- Wednesday, 31 July 2002, at 10:50 a.m.

Re: What is Success?
Uncle Bob -- Thursday, 1 August 2002, at 9:35 a.m.

 

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