Mine is: success to me is being able to spend time with my family and friends whenever I want.
What is success to you?
My Favorite Discipline Resources:
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Chris williamson youtube chanel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisWillx
Jocko podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@JockoPodcastOfficial
by incomestrms
21 Comments
It used to be dying painlessly for me. It’s now a more realistic — dying nonviolently.
Success is waking up and feeling happy with yourself. It isn’t measured in achievements but rather in your state of mind.
I grew up suicidal and hated my entire 20s. I never planned to live past 30. I used to put so much pressure on myself to have some Masters degree and make over $100k a year and have a big house and nice car…. I’m 31 now and I have a husband who has loved me since I was a teenager, 2 beautiful boys who crack me up every day, a house in the country on a dirt road with tons of privacy, and a job where I get to help people with addiction. Is it a high paying job? No. Is it the job I want forever? No. But for me just loving my family and my home, and not feeling like I have to take vacations to escape my life is my definition of successful. My kids seeing a loving marriage, and not a highly toxic and abusive marriage like I saw growing up. Food in the pantry. House filled with laughter.
A while back it was getting through uni and graduating. Whilst school is important, now I feel that having a decent, respectful, kind, loving person to spend my life with in order to have a family and continue achieving new milestones
It’s now less about what I am doing and more about how I feel when I am doing something.
Travelling: Am I relaxed and taking things in? Meeting interesting people? Learning new things? Are the people I am with enjoying their time with me, and am I enjoying being with them?
Work: Is everyone around me better because I am there? Am I having fun? Is it interesting?
Life: Am I making the people and places around me better? Am I relaxed and able to enjoy the good things that are around and available to me?
I think I managed to have some degree of ego death in the last 20 years (I’m mid life now) but probably not completely. It wasn’t until this year that I even gained an appreciation for the idea that it’s better to just get rid of stressors quickly, no mater what the cost. Just act on them and move on. I used to fight fight fight (for good and bad).
To me, success is having complete time, location, and financial freedom so I can pursue projects that are meaningful to me (like recently self-publishing a book), live anywhere I want (my husband and I housesit all over the place), and buy things/experiences without financial worry (I’m generally very frugal with my spendings, but I will spend extravagantly on things that matter to me, like a solo trip to New Zealand where I visited Hobbiton and other LOTR sites).
If I got the opportunity to have a senior level job in my field, I’d take it of course. But I also don’t care about titles anymore. The most important thing at this point in my life is making as much money as I can with the skillset I have. I want-need money to give me the flexibility to pursue my passion & hobbies. To see where those passions take me. So success to me = More time for passion & exploration. And being able to take care of those I care about whenever they need it.
Being joyful and content with where you are in your own head and skin, and being content w/ where you are headed in life.
Helping others out with your time, or lending someone an ear when you don’t feel like it. There’s real satisfaction after that.
Get rid of the cheap dopamine hits.
Money comes and goes, women come and go, nothing gold can stay.
Set goals. “failing to plan, is ‘planning to fail’.” – Bill Phillips.
*cue ‘Fitter, Happier, More Productive’*
Success is being happy and having your health
Success to me used to be solely about achieving tangible goals and milestones. But over time, I’ve come to see it as finding a balance between personal fulfilment, meaningful connections, and making a positive impact. It’s not just about what you accomplish, but how you grow as a person and contribute to others’ lives along the way
Success is when something intended is achieved well enough.
Success doesn’t make me happy. I intend things and then try to achieve success only due to some kind of persistent neuroses I still have. If I was free of them, I’d lie down and be done.
Success for me is making my children grow up as decent human beings.
Not waking up and feeling miserable or regretting your decisions.
Accomplishing my goals. Seeing progress even if its slow as molasses.
Success is the achievement of goals. That is the common definition of success.
Thirty years ago when I was starting out in hospitality, I had two material definitions of success. First was to have a espresso coffee machine on the kitchen counter of my house plumbed into the water and waste. The second was to have an induction cooktop. While I’ve changed my mind about having a plumbed in espresso machine and prices dropped for induction cooktops, I do have both items now. Albeit they are at the lower end of the price scale for such items, but I do have both of them.
They give me satisfaction because they are not big expensive items in the scheme of things but they are very much luxury items. No-one *needs* a personal espresso machine or an induction cooktop so therefore I must be successful to afford them. Luckily I place less importance on flash cars or incredible houses so I’m not chasing those dreams.
I also wanted a house (which I have) and a wife and 2.3 children, a white picket fence and a dog and dreamed of entertaining friends and family at BBQs and dinner parties. I didnt have a strong or good family myself so I wanted what I didnt have. Unfortunately, part way through that process, I found that I didn’t have a wife any more nor a dog. I do have 1.0 children. I still have that desire so that’s what motivates me now. In an effort to keep the ex happy we’d moved to her small hometown with few opportunities for me (which likely compounded the problems) so my motivation and measure of success has changed. It is now is to rebuild my career and have those dinner parties, perhaps on a smaller scale, but have those parties all the same.
For me its doing what i want with who i want whenever i want! Financial independence is wonderful 👍🏽
**Success**
By Bessie Anderson Stanley
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and
the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure
the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one’s self;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and
sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you
have lived –
This is to have succeeded.
Used to be having money; now it’s staying alive
Success for me is being financially independent, being my own boss, not having to work a job I hate just to make ends meet, having money to travel and live a luxurious lifestyle.
Peace of mind for sure