There really is no right or wrong answer to what success feels like. It is an individual measure, a personal response to achieving what you set out to do.
Success is categorized in different ways. For some it might be career-based, while for others it could focus on family. Running your own business or having a secure job at a good company could be your parameters of success. Providing a comfortable and supportive environment for your family could be your goal.
What the actual outward achievements look like isn’t important, but how you feel about them is everything. That is the only true measure of success there is.
If you wake up each day and are full of anticipation for what lies ahead, chances are that you would consider yourself successful, or at least on the way to being so. If you wake up and feel trepidation or absolute disdain for what the day is likely to bring, then you probably don’t feel as accomplished.
This has little to do with how much money you have, how big your house is, or what kind of car you drive. It has everything to do with how you fit into the world around you and if you have a sense of belonging and of being loved.
Love is at the root of it all.
It doesn’t need to be the love of friends or family either. You can be surrounded by loving people and be miserable if you don’t like yourself. You can also be completely alone in life and still feel loved and supported.
Ultimately, there is no one definition of success. It’s something we all say that we want, but then we might have a difficult time defining it in real terms.
A bunch of money in the bank won’t make you successful if you hate yourself for the way you accumulated it. If you end up in poor health because of overworking to get somewhere in life, then that isn’t going to be what you had hoped for either.
It’s liberating not to need something to happen in order to feel successful. What if you could find that feeling in every moment of every day? If waking up in the morning and being alive to enjoy another day can be viewed as a success, then you have already won the day before it even starts. What a great feeling to begin with a sense of accomplishment.
The more comfort we achieve, the more we want to have. Expansion of who we are in this way is normal and a part of being human. Learning to operate from a place of contentment while striving to achieve more is a satisfying way to live, and sharing what you have with others is the ultimate pleasure.
It’s a relief when you can let go of expectations and begin to enjoy all that surrounds you now. The constant striving and never arriving can get very tiring. When you keep working but never getting to where you want to be, life starts to be no fun at all.
Remind yourself that life is precious. There are many moments that can be challenging, so when things are going pretty good we should seize the chance to appreciate them. Outside circumstances might get better or they might get worse, and you can still be okay through it all.
When you can release your need to change things you have no control over, you set yourself up to achieve success regularly. You then position your life to be a wonderful experience instead of a torture to be endured.
Everything about this life is special. There is beauty everywhere, you need only to open your eyes to appreciate it. When you demand less from the outside world and focus on the inner, the control you possess over how you feel in each moment is in your hands.
Success is remembering that you already are everything you need to be. The rest of it is details.