I do a little "consulting" on the side. Sure most of it happens in my own mind as I wonder what I would say if people actually asked me to give them some advice. But, however I get there, I find myself talking with people about their life, their business, their church... whatever. One of the questions that people seem to be asking in the back of their mind is, "Am I successful"? I suppose it is the culture we live in that promotes this feeling that we must be successful to have value.
I think they are asking the wrong question. "Success" is a hard thing to measure, especially if you did not actually set any objectives for yourself when you started your endeavor. The better question is "Are you satisfied?"
Most of the time when we talk about success we are trying to figure out how other people think we are doing. When we talk about satisfaction we begin to think about how we think we are doing. Success has to do with meeting expectations of our culture, satisfaction has to do with meeting expectations of... well that is the next issue isn't it? When we start to think, "What would satisfy me?" then we have started down the proper road. That is when we start to think about things like vision, and purpose, and life-goals. When I sit back and say, "I am satisfied with my life", what I am really saying is, "I am fulfilling the vision and purpose that my life was created for."
I think God wants us to be fulfilled and satisfied in our daily lives. He wants us to forget about success as it is defined by others and focus on vision as it is defined by Him. And, before you start to worry that living a satisfied life = living a lazy life... I have a feeling that God's vision for your life will keep you plenty busy for years to come. Being fulfilled and satisfied does not mean you have to be lazy and bored :).
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