The sun sets on another day…
I was sitting here watching the rain fall, thinking about the sunset so high above all these dark clouds and started reviewing 29000 sunsets a little.
I find that I question a lot, and try to explain a lot, and sometimes rant like an inhuman reptile. One items I found interesting in my musings tonight was success. I searched for that term and 3 pages of items came up, all having to do with success. (The list is here!)
I thought about success for a while and how my idea of success has changed over the years.
As I was growing up, I had no real concept of success. Success was defined as getting a good grade, but I always did, and it wast difficult. I added being able to do things, like swing higher, ride bike further, and more, but as I added it was difficult. My constant moving from town to town made it hard to not only define my environment, but myself. I set aside other goals, reading more books, reading faster, learning more. As I got into 4th and 5th grade I was defining myself by how much I had accumulated about a subject. Was I an expert on weather, fossils, or more. All along my young years I defined part of my success on whether I was liked, specifically by girls. I know, weird for a young man, but I set out strange goals for my age, and as I did so those became part of my success.
To me, that is how the idea of success is defined. The people around us share their success, or parents, or family, and you keep evolving. Since my grandfather was a Professor, I told intelligence, and more. Then as I great older I was redefined by a series of difficult events I found that my success was not the way I should look. I redefined my success to being the best at helping others, defending people in need, and understanding a great deal of other things while looking at not being pointed out as better or best. In high school I would purposefully miss questions so I would not be the top score or focus.
As I went through college and beyond, my idea of success continued to change over and over based on how I built a life. Children, family, and more were goals to be successful, but the criteria were not defined in such, and it created situations in which I failed. Success was elusive. Success was not there, success sucked. It was then that my idea of living life for the day became real, and the idea of 29000 sunsets was born. Why not consider life as a journey and every day could be a success. In late 1999 I started building concepts. The rest followed.
Today success changes still. It has to, as defining a point in time cannot be what we are on each day, which is a journey. Stating one successful item is an endpoint, and that simply will not work.
Wow, a lot of info and data, so the statement is success is as you define it each day or point in your life. It is not a definition to me, it is a way of life.
So as the sun sets on another day, how do you define your success? Is it a person? A place? A thing? Is it an abstract that is reachable or unreachable or is it something more mellow? Is success for you a ride on a horse or a million dollars in the back? Is success retiring early? Or finding a way to live each day as though retirement did not matter? No matter your definition, I hope you find your success, no matter what.
Sleep sweet, succeed today, and build a powerful tomorrow…