Comments on: Success: How are you defining it?

By: Shonnie

Shonnie — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:35:19 +0000

Hi Will. Thanks for your comment. I agree that “failure,” like “success” are arbitrary terms. Knowing what success means to us personally allows us to know if our results are getting us closer to that mark (“succeeding”) or further from it (“failing”). Thus “failing” is a very useful and positive experience, not the think to avoid (which is how most people typically approach it).

By: Will Atts

Will Atts — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:00:42 +0000

Love the post, but I always reflect on the term failure. The connotation is not really what we need to address. I love point one
“•Decide for yourself what a life successfully lived will look, feel, and be like.”

Everyone has a view, even a vague one, about how they would like their life to be. It will not always be the case, but that is not necessarily a failure. Part of the joy for success is in the pursuit. If you make a choice which does not lead to your vision of success, then you have learned something more about yourself and your life’s quest. That is not a failure but rather a situation which allows you to reflect and probably help clarify what your target really is.

Just as experiencing success makes you happy, not experiencing success will help you focus on what is improtant to you.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:10:14 +0000

I agree with Chris. Some people have already encountered so many mistakes in their life to the point that they have already lost hope. But success comes after failure so I think they just need to keep learning from their mistakes and stay positive because it will just be a matter of time before they reach success.

By: Irvingia

Irvingia — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:21:18 +0000

Hi Shonnie,

I’m on the path of personal development, and happened to stumble upon your post.

Whenever I hear the question, “How do you define success?” I always think, “Geez…there are so many ways to do so.”

It’s good that you mentioned values in this post. Because before you have a definition of success, I think you need to know what your true values are.

From your values, you can determine what your successes are.

Here’s an example:

For a person who values community and family, success might be defined as contributing to the community and raising a great family, with children who, themselves, contribute to the community.

So, if I had to define success, I think that’s one workable, practical, and worthy definition: knowing your values and working toward them.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:16:34 +0000

Hi Shonnie,

You said:
“Perhaps they’ve done it before and “failed.””

Sure they have, they need to look at this as a positive in my opinion however. Can’t remember who said it but the saying goes something like this:

“If you want to multiply your successes, you have to multiply your failures.”