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.

Defining Riches

All too often people confuse riches with wealth. In a previous post "Defining Wealth" I listed a dictionary definition that illustrates how conventional wisdom contributes to the confusion. It says that "Wealth is a state of being rich."

Wealth is definitely a state of being however I will argue that it does not require riches to be wealthy because not all "rich people" are truly wealthy. It is a virtual paradox which many people never get past. There is no contradiction in my earlier statement however conventional wisdom has most of turning to the "better" J.O.B. or a higher education or the lottery in hopes of some day being rich.

So what are riches and why don't they make a person wealthy?

First off nothing outside of you can make you anything. The only things that are real come from within. So where do we start?

Lets grab the Double Day Dictionary and see how it defines "Riches."

1) Abundant possessions; wealth.
2) Abundance of whatever is precious.

Immediately you can see the unending loop (paradox) conventional wisdom has thrown over our heads. You've been taught that to be wealthy you must have riches and that riches make you wealthy.

Looking at the definitions above, if indeed riches are an abundance of whatever is precious then you'll never be wealthy unless you acquire said "abundance of things that are precious." Therefore, having riches are about having possessions.

In history many well known people have become rich doing exactly that, they have acquired a fortune of precious things but they died a very unhappy person. Just consider Howard Hughes who was so obsessed over controlling possessions that in the last decades of his life, he had no life any body would want to live. I would say that he died not having true wealth in spite of the fact he was certainly rich.

So lets take a look at what the dictionary says about the word "rich."

It defines "Rich" like this:

1) Having large possessions, as of money, goods, or lands; wealthy.
2) Abundantly supplied: with in or with
3) Yielding abundant returns; plentiful: a rich source of oil.
4) Of precious materials, fine workmanship, etc., rich fabrics.
5) Luxuriant; sumptuous
6) Having many choice ingredients such as butter, cream, etc.
7) Pleasingly full and resonant; rich tone
8) Deep, intense; rich color
9) Very fragrant, pungent; rich perfume
10) Containing a high percentage of fuel to air: said of fuel mixtures
11) Abounding in desirable qualities: rich soil
12) Informal, very funny; a rich joke

Rich it would appear is a word used to describe a "condition" or a "state" of things we are familiar with such as rich food or rich color. Does this mean a person is a thing that can exists in a state of or a condition we call rich? Yes they can just as Howard Hughes was rich but his "state of being" was not wealthy (or healthy) because it lacked the essence of what makes life and living rich. You see without other people who love and admire you and without a peaceful heart and benevolent spirit we cut ourselves off from the source of all that really matters which is a part of the world we live in and giving love and being loved.

I will argue that Mother Theresa was far more wealthy than Howard Hughes for this reason; even though she did not possess any "riches" in the conventional sense she none the less had a "rich life."

When I die I would much rather have an epitaph that acknowledged all of the contributions I had made to ease the suffering and create value for humanity. I know that Howard Hughes made many worth while contributions and I don't argue that he did; but my point is this, Howard's last years were not at all a tribute to his successes and contributions and I'll invite you to do a Google search on him to discover what I mean.

Conventional wisdom has taught us that to be wealthy we must acquire riches and to do so is to be rich which suggests a state of being. Ultimately it comes down to deciding for yourself where you put the most value in this life. Is your value based solely on possessions or are you the kind of person who sees that the real value in this life lies in the human personality?

If you look at being wealthy as Howard Hughes did then I suggest you probably will never reach that goal. Why you ask? Because you are most likely a very decent and practical person who has been educated in our conventional ways of thinking and as a result you know that people like him are an exception and not the rule and so you look at or believe that kind of wealth is not obtainable in this life time. Your inability to identify with that definition of wealth and your belief that it is not obtainable will guarantee you'll never have to worry about it.

If you describe yourself as a person who sees the true value of other people and human potential then I would agree you have the highest potential of living your life in a "state of being" that I call wealthy and as such all the riches of your hearts desire will be a part of your living and lifestyle.

It all comes down to a matter of choice and whether you believe what you've been told about the rich and famous and extremely wealthy or whether you believe you get to decide what you think and believe in spite of what you've been told.