Would your family consider you successful? Would your partner, your children, your staff consider you successful? They would base their point of view on their relationship with you. Like the quality of time, they enjoy with you, etcetera, etcetera.
However, our society usually defines success materially. According to them, if you have lots of stuff you’re successful. How naïve and immature.
The late great Paul J. Meyer’s definition of success was: “Success is the progressive realisation of worthwhile, predetermined, personal goals.” What does this really mean?
SUCCESS IS PROGRESSIVE. So success is ongoing, an ever-unfolding process moving ever upward and outward. After all these years of teaching and practicing these success principles, what is fascinating to me is just how deeper and deeper my experience becomes. Just when I think I know it all, my understanding will deepen! And I realise that this journey is infinite. Professor John Hagelin Director of the Institute of Science at MIU. says that Human potential is infinite. Human beings can gain the ability to know anything, do anything, and accomplish anything.
SUCCESS IS A REALISATION. Success is something we ‘experience’. It is an inner feeling of achievement. Success is not the outward appearance of success. So many people believe that success is a certain paycheque, or net worth, or status in life. But, in reality, success isn’t an outcome—it’s a feeling. Advertising and the media have convinced us that we are nothing without money and material possessions. We have been brainwashed into believing this “stuff” is what we’re supposed to want, that fulfillment comes from what we have rather than how we live and FEEL. However, nothing is more important than feeling good.
SUCCESS IS WORTHWHILE. Success is based on your “Values” – what do you hold in high esteem. Overall success in building a completed life depends upon setting and achieving goals in all the areas of your life: spiritual, mental, family, health, financial, leisure etcetera. You cannot really call yourself successful by making a fortune if, in the process, you damage your body, your family relationships, your peace of mind. Our final legacy shouldn’t be so much about money, it should be about one’s character, one’s values. What unique gift do people receive by just being around you? I like myself best when I’m with you.
SUCCESS IS PREDETERMINED. Success is something that you need to think about. It’s important to look at how you are living your life right now and think about how you can avoid any future regrets. Many mistakes we make that lead to regret later in life are avoidable. Success is something you must plan for carefully. Seldom does real success just happen? What we call success is a simple word but can never happen to an unprepared mind. “Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity” – Seneca. Success is the end result of your predestined intentions, with planning and getting your mindset right.
SUCCESS IS PERSONAL. Success is something that is personally of value to you and meaningful to you as a unique individual. Allowing others to set your goals for you will never work because we become an echo of someone else’s thoughts and feelings. To realise our very own nature is what each of us is here for. Achieving what someone else thinks should be important to you will not provide you with the thrill and self-satisfaction that you truly desire. You have unique needs, desires, and dreams that only you can truly know and fulfill.
SUCCESS NECESSITATES GOALS. Success depends upon setting out continuous intentions that excite and inspire you in all the areas of your life. People get bored with their work, with their marriage, with their spiritual life because they very quickly fall into a comfort zone. Setting new intentions and goals in the various areas of your life gives you the fuel to move! Complacent people quickly become stagnant and so it is a vital part of the lives of successful people to treat success as a journey and not a destination. “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s heaven for?” – Robert Browning
WHAT IS SUCCESS REALLY?
BUT, what if feeling the warmth of the sun, and the wind caressing your face is just as important as being successful? What if success is noticing your children playing, hearing their laughter, and seeing them having fun? What if stopping and looking up at the night sky with stars shining so bright was what success is all about. What if success is about counting your blessings.
A child sees everything as miraculous, everything as extra special and wondrous, and the reason a child sees everything this way is because it’s what is happening. Too often as so-called grownups, we let the problems and the day-to-day challenges rob us of the miraculous abundance and splendour of what life presents to us every day. “Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.” – Hans Christian Andersen
Sadly some people have a list of things that they believe makes them successful. They say money is important and the things that money can buy are important. However, remember that money is a tool meant to help transform your life in more meaningful ways. Our programme is designed to help you remember the purpose of your life, the one you were born to live. You were not born to shop. For some people earning more money means they can accumulate more stuff – this kind of mentality is a waste of your life’s precious currency.
WISE GUYS
- “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
- “If you really want to do something you’ll find a way, if you don’t you’ll find an excuse.” – Jim Rohn
- “The greatest lesson of life is that you are responsible for your life.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.” – George Carlin
