Success

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it

-- Maya Angelou

I've been thinking a lot about life and personal success lately. I'm much older now so the horizon, the timeline, to achieve long term goals is much shorter. I'm much more realistic in terms of what my capabilities, and limitations are.

And so I've been writing a lot in my daily journal. Ramblings mostly. Trying to sort things out on paper, and not just in my head. Because there's a lot of noise going on up there, most of it just clatter and dreams. But there's a sense of wandering, of purposelessness (if that's a word). And of vague, undefined targets and goals. This blog is something of that too.

Mostly I've been thinking of the definition of success. What does it mean to be successful?

In a race, success means winning. Because a race involved competition. 

Does life involve competition? And if so, with who?

Success is a moving goal, it doesn't stay still. But is that really true? Is success a target? Something to be achieved?

I'm writing this now, and the purpose is to think and put down on paper. At the same time, since this is my blog, the intent is to write something coherent that I can share. That you can read so that you too, can go out and think about success - for yourself. Having read my struggle to try and articulate it.

While it's easy to come up with slogans, or saying, it's best to struggle with this definition for ourselves. And that's a slogan in itself. To define, first, what success means to you.

And it could be something simple as, having enough money so that I can do the things that I like to do. And I suppose, if you have a good job and have money, then articulating the things that you like to do is the next step. And not lofty, superficial things, like travel the planet. Real things involving mental  and physical health, service to self and others, and the occasional achievable luxury.

We all won't own personal jets. And they aren't necessary - nor required in my opinion. Even if you have all the money in the world, a personal jet is a waste of resources, unless you loan it out and it becomes a business.

We won't all ascend to being corporate giants. We may remain as clerks, working in the back, doing the necessary jobs that allow the company to do what it does. Necessary, but not limelight stuff.

We won't all participate in the Olympics.

We won't all write books.

We won't all win the Oscar or Nobel prize.

Those aren't really goals, and not the stuff of personal success.

The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don't have.

-- Woody Allen

That quote by Woody Allen says most of it. What it also means is that nobody can define success for you. And that only you'll know when you get there.

Here's another one.

Always be a first rate version of yourself, instead of a second rate version of someone else.

-- Judy Garland

It's not always easy not to compare ourselves with people around us.

Last thoughts.

• Take time to read, every day.
  
  
• Meditate, think, reflect - and jot down your thoughts.
  
  
• Draw, doodle, get your hand moving.
  
  
• Take walks.
  
  
• Work passionately on something. Anything.
  
  
• Don't think too much about what's past, but reflect on good times.

We hear a lot about being in the moment. I believe we exist in the moment, but live in the future. Always worried about the next thing, and not concentrating on what's going on right now. Always planning for the future, which may or may not come.

And if you take only one thing from this, take this:

Success is being able to passionately live, in the moment.