What does being successful mean? - Part I

STOP! BEFORE READING THE FOLLOWING. CHOOSE UP TO 6 WORDS/SITUATIONS THAT ANSWER THE ABOVE QUESTION. REMEMBER TO CHOOSE THE FIRST 6 WORDS WHICH COME INTO YOUR HEAD (write them down if necessary).

When you're ready, select the area between ...

(here)

- Good-high earnings/job
- A modern car,
- Great house/penthouse
- Minimum of 2 holidays per year
- Financial stability
....and social life to match.

(and here, to reveal my answers)

So you probably came up with a few or more of these answers or similar, and who would blame you?
I know from within my group of friends that the definition of success would be similar. Why? because success often means status and a high status would fall under having/owning most of the above attributes which consquently means you have money if you are successful.

In realising this, we could say that success, according to the above definition, is external. The list has nothing to do with ourselves you see. It's purely a way of showing others how many expensive items we have been able to purchase over a period of time. Success exists therefore only if others can confirm it? If there is no one to see your success, then are you still sucessful? Think about it, nobody says " Wow, I'm so successful" about themselves. We say it about others. We see the BMW, the Rolex, gold credit cards and the lifestyle and confirm that these are the things which mark and define success. If you do not have these things or nobody can see them you simply are not successful.

Yeah, it's quite shallow, but also a reality for the majority of people.

I don't think success is any of these things. Not one on the list in fact. I don't think success needs to be confirmed by others - if this were so, it would make it as weak as it is powerful. On top of this and at the forefront, I don't believe that success is or should be made easy, in fact it should be down right hard and difficult for us to achieve. Of course there is a reason for this too.

To be continued...