Defining Success

OK, so your first thought is probably something like...



"I don't need to read this, I already know what success means."



Fact is... You Don't know what success means if you're like a majority of people in the world.



Conventional wisdom once again has the true meaning confused with something that is difficult for most people to achieve (see my blog post "Defining Conventional Wisdom"). Conventional Wisdom treats success as a destination instead of a process of becoming. To illustrate I'll go back to the dictionary and share what Double Day has to say.



Success is defined as:



1) A favorable course or termination of anything attempted or intended.

2) The gaining of position, wealth, fame, etc.

3) A person or thing that is successful.

4) The degree of succeeding: Did you have any success in getting an appointment?



As you can plainly see the word is characterized with having obtained a destination. The reason this causes most of us a problem is that we tend to feel we haven't achieved much or at least a lot of people feel that way. I would encourage you to ask your friends, family and co-workers, :"Do you feel successful" and most of the answers you get will say "no" or "it depends."



A definition of success like the one we were taught growing up means that in order to be successful, we first have to succeed which is why Television is so attractive. People can live their lives vicariously through the accomplishments of other people and escape the haunting certainty that they themselves are not successful.



I have found a definition of success that is far more functional and in fact is more accurate as well. In the book "You Were Born Rich" by Bob Proctor he defines success as "the progressive realization of any worthy goal or ideal." This definition allows everybody on the planet to be successful, that is it allows them to be successful but only if they choose to be that way.



Now before you start to argue with me about semantics allow me to elaborate. Success in it's truest form is a "state of being" wherein a choice or decision "to be" has been made. I wish I knew this little detail when I was younger but alas I was destined to take a few years in it's discovery.



You see, when a person has goals and dreams aka., "worthy ideals" every single time they take action toward achieving this dream they are in fact "being successful." I purposely left out the achievement of that dream because the universal principles or laws that govern creation do not require completion of something in order for it to be a success. Besides, once we have achieved something we must have another goal to achieve that is even higher or we fall into being complaisant and loose our edge in life. We must always be doing to be a success and the actual achievement is nothing more than a way point on the journey to celebrate for a brief moment.



For example: the earth was created but it is also evolving which means the process is not finished yet. It would be safe to say that the Creation of the earth was a success would it not?



How about something a little less abstract, say your J.O.B. for instance. You went to work today, or whenever you last worked you did, and you did whatever you do in your line of work. Chances are pretty good you didn't complete any specific tasks (maybe a few) if your J.O.B. is like most I've seen you did a series of actions that only contribute to the finished product of something. Will you earn a paycheck for your efforts? Chances are pretty good the answer is yes. Today you don't have the paycheck in hand but none the less you were successful in earning a paycheck the last time you went to work. In other words you did not need to have the final product or actual paycheck in order to be a success in earning a paycheck.



I could give a million such examples but suffice it to say we apply different standards to things we do for other people and things we do for ourselves. Often we don't consider ourselves to be a success because the project or goal we had in mind is not complete yet but simultaneously we will allow ourselves to be a success when we go to work for someone else...hmmmmm



This contradiction is a major contributor to the failure of a lot of businesses, especially home based businesses. When people go to work for themselves they expect they will only be successful when the final product is making them a lot of money so they spend day after day week after week feeling unsuccessful and in a few months with all that negative re-reinforcement and thinking they quit.



Thomas Edison used the definition of success that I mentioned above and it was also mentioned in a book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. It isn't a new idea but it isn't taught to the masses either. Did you know that Thomas Edison performed over 12,000 experiments before he finally found the right combination for a filament for a light bulb? If you do the math and a little research on your own, you'll discover that he conducted dozens of experiments for many years prior to having a final product. But when he was interviewed by Napoleon Hill, Thomas Edison considered himself to be a success the entire time.



Success therefore is the daily, consistent effort that goes into the realization of any worthy goal or ideal. If you get out of bed every day and take action on your dreams then you are a success. Where you go from there is entirely your choice.