Ask ten people what success is and you’ll get ten different answers, probably. I say probably, because some people will have answers that will seem similar at first, but when we all look closer at it, everyone’s measure of success is different. This is something I want to dive deeper into, because it’s a subject so many of us talk about, and more importantly, so many people of us strive for. But what if success in itself becomes your primary goal? Will it bring you anything? Is it not happiness you’re after? And what exactly is success to you? Let’s take a look at these questions together.

What if success in itself becomes your primary goal?

There are so many people on this planet who strive for success and believe that if they only get to a certain point, they will have achieved success. But is that really so? I most certainly don’t think so. When I was writing my Shaedon Resurgence trilogy and had it published, I had expected that writing a trilogy would bring a certain degree of success. My expectations of what writing three books would bring me was largely flawed and only in retrospect can I say that a ten year younger me was expecting that I’d be a best-selling writer by now, which was my measure of success back then. I still look back at the trilogy with a sense of accomplishment, but what I failed to see was that writing a trilogy, and getting it published, in itself is already a big success. To get back to the question at hand, we need to be very mindful that success in and of itself should never be a primary goal. The road and the process are part of what makes something a success.

Will success bring you anything?

Success is so subjective, that it is hard to tell if it will bring you anything. If you’re of the belief that “If only I had this, or that, I’ll be happy” then you’re going to be very disappointed in life. Happiness is fleeting and just like any other emotional state we can be in, we can’t be happy all the time. We can practice gratitude for the things we do have and we can be contented with our lives, but success in and of itself will not bring you everlasting happiness. Surely, it can bring you a lot, like health, financial independence, prestige, fame and whatnot, but what it ultimately brings you, is what you make of it.

What is success to you?

This is what it all ultimately boils down to. As stated earlier, everyone’s measure of success is different and you can have many different kinds of successes in life. Maybe you think a successful relationship means you’ll end up being married to someone you love and you have two kids together. Maybe you think a successful career means you end up being the CEO of a big Fortune 500 company. Whatever it may be, success is different for everyone and one of my goals for this blog is to make this clear. Whatever success means to you, I would urge you to consider if your measure of success on any given topic is truly your own and not something everyone else believes is success. I mean measures of success like ‘The American Dream’, which is often seen as something everyone should strive for, especially in Western culture. So, what is success to you? That’s all up to you to find out!

What is succes to me?

The word success to me brings to mind all kinds of associations. A lot of these come from Western indoctrination which is also why so many of us feel like we’re failures in modern society. We live in a meritocracy where our striving for success causes a division of people between losers and winners. That’s where a lot of our current troubles originate from and a major cause of the polarisation we see happening around us. Success is something that’s very personal for me and it can govern many different subjects, which is why success can take on many forms. But if you’d ask me what my definition of success would be it’s to have the freedom to do the things you want to do, without worries about finances, and to make this beautiful planet just a bit better, every day. Lastly, I would say that success is also freedom of mind. I’ve been training my mind a lot lately, mainly through meditation and to “just be in the moment” is one of the most wondrous things one can experience and I would definitely label that as success, although in that context, when we are separate from the ego, concepts like success don’t really have much meaning.

What is your measure of success? Please let me know in the comments!

Have a nice day!

Jeffrey