Most of us want to be successful, but not everyone knows what success looks like. In fact, the concept of ‘success’ can be a real subject of contention because everyone has their own definition of success. So what does it exactly mean to be successful? At what level, and by whose standards?
If we were to live in this question for long enough it would challenge us at the deepest level. It would invite us to review and probably revise our core values. But we don’t want that challenge because it means we might have to change how we think and what we do. Just imagine for a moment that every single school student in the world spent one year discussing and debating the question, “What is success?” inside out, and upside down.
What would our children tell us? Would we have the patience and the faith to listen and to learn from them? Instead of imposing our inherited beliefs, definitions and conditions, would we have the humility to facilitate their discussion and allow them to tell us? Or do we intuitively know they would be wiser than us and therefore pull the carpet from under our comfortable feet?
Would we be threatened if their wisdom defined success as a simpler, more considerate, caring, sharing, spiritual state of being and giving, and not a material state of acquisition, accumulation and possession? If we were to give ourselves the time to explore this question, we would likely arrive at the fairly obvious insight that success is not a material thing, it is a state of being.
We might call it contentment, or happiness, or even peace because these are the deepest symptoms of success, but only when they are not dependent on anything outside ourselves. So, let us engage our energies in achieving success that is based on strong foundation of values like contentment, humility, peace, respect and inspire our next generation to do so.