Defining Success

My mother emailed awhile back and mentioned that she and my father considered their lives to be successful because they had raised three children into contributing adults who had also grown up to be friends with each other and their parents. That sounds easy but anyone who's gone through the process of child rearing knows that it is anything but. So my congratulations, mom and dad.

Growing up I often thought success somehow involved getting your name known by millions of people. Granted this was before cable tv, the internet, YouTube and "America's Most Wanted" made it so easy to have your name know by millions of people that anyone can be famous just for being ubiquitous or bad. I dreamed of being a writer, a novelist, and being well-known was my signpost of success.

Life experience has given me the opportunity to redefine what success means for me. I haven't become a novelist, but I did realize that the ability to express my thoughts in writing could take me other places! So, what does success look like for me at this time in my life?

• A marriage that has lasted over 25 years, even as we worked side-by-side in two businesses together.
• Good relationships with my family, and my family by marriage, including stepdaughters.
• A personally significant spiritual life.
• Activities that have a positive impact on my local community, the global community, the human family.
• A career that has allowed me an immense amount of personal growth and the opportunity to work with people from all walks of life.
• Deep and meaningful friendships.
• Continued curiosity and openness to new experiences.

No doubt there's many more I could think of but these are the "biggies". It's still nice to be known, for the right reasons of course, but it isn't what drives me. Hopefully at some point we all realize that success is really an "inside job" and not about the job, the house, the car or anything else you can pay monthly on. Sure I still occassionally fantasize about being on the t.v. talk show circuit promoting my best-selling novel, but the truth is I am to busy living my successful life to start writing it!