What is Success?

Ever thought about your personal definition of success?

I had a very good discussion on success in my seminar today. It is a core part of the seminar that I am delivering, and I got a lot of really good, and interesting opinions. That is exactly what I like. Makes it a lot more interesting.

Why do we judge others' success? This often comes up in the discussion. As a society we have certain ideals, standards, expectations that we impose on people. And there is a common thought out there(at least from the number of people that have ever taken this class) that when people don't *measure up* to that ideal we say they are unsuccessful.

Is it really that hard to just recognize that everyone in the world is different; have different goals; value different things? Is a homeless person successful? A corporate CEO? A mother? A volunteer? Someone on welfare? I think so. If he or she is doing EXACTLY what they want and are happy, who are we to say that he or she is not successful.

I do think a good part of the population continually judge others way of life. It is the whole idea behind the saying *keeping up with the Jones*. Why do we feel that we need to meet other peoples standards and not our own? Or maybe we don't? I supppose if you want the same things as *the Jones*, and those things will help in you achieving success and happiness then you simply have the same definition of success as *the Jones*. I think we need to start looking more closely at ourselves when we are doing things; acquiring things; or even just simply being someone that isn't really that important in our overall happiness. We need to quit comparing ourselves to others, because *we* ultimately make ourselves happy and successful, other people's opinions don't.