Monday, June 8, 2015

How do you measure success?

Deep thoughts on this Monday morning....


photo via Instagram

I had just walked into the break room at work a few weeks ago when a co-worker caught me off-guard with a very deep question:

What does being successful mean to you?

Wow.

I was definitely not expecting that. I answered with the first thing I thought of: "Being happy with what you have while always striving for more." (And then, of course, I immediately wrote it down so I could share it with all of you and start a conversation here on the blog.)

My co-worker then clarified his question: At the end of my life, how would I measure my success? Would it be money? Children? Something else? I answered that I would consider my life to have been successful if I had changed something (or someone) in the world, for the better. Some people enact positive change through raising families, others through having influential careers, and others through volunteer or charity work. Everyone works their own magic in their own ways, but I think the most important thing is that the choices you make in your life help make someone else's life better.

For others, I think success could be measured by having children and raising a happy, healthy family. Others could measure success monetarily, if only to say, "I want to send my kids to college" or "I want to be a homeowner." Others might measure their life success by their success in their career(s). Some of you probably measure success in a way I've never considered!

So now I have to ask: How do you measure success?

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