Redefine Success

My tenet for this post is that success carries with it satisfaction and fulfillment. That means that if you believe you are successful but are not satisfied and fulfilled then you are not, in fact, successful.

Think of the person who climbs the financial ladder, continually reaching higher and higher levels in the pay charts. By most external accounts he is successful, even by his own accounts he calls himself successful; and yet he is not truly satisfied or fulfilled. He is left thinking that perhaps the next level will be where satisfaction truly begins. That is where he will be able to stop for a moment and enjoy his success. How laughable... that one could be successful and not full of joy already.

There are also the millions of people who believe success is reaching a certain number on a scale. Then when they get there (or convince themselves they have come close enough) they find that it is not nearly as satisfying as they had hoped... mostly because the awful truth hits them; after you hit the magic number on the scale you do not magically stay there. The process is not truly over, and most of the time they hated the process it took to get to the number, hoping that the number itself would bring them fulfillment and satisfaction.

I believe we need to redefine success. We call so many people successful when they are not even happy. How can that be success?

Certainly we can play word games and paint the difference between external success (say winning a football game) and internal success (receiving satisfaction and fulfillment from that win). My recommendation is that we spend more time talking about the latter type of success. That is, the success that is focused on the process and not on individual achievements.

In this new world we can call people successful who are only a few steps up the corporate ladder but somehow manage to enjoy their families, give back to their communities, and smile at their co-workers. We can call someone successful who is 50 lbs. overweight, because we know that three months ago they were 60 lbs. overweight. We can count ourselves successful when the dishes only stacked up 2 feet before we got them cleaned... instead of the 3 feet it used to take to move us to action.

Why is it so important to think of ourselves as successful? Because the alternative is that we wallow in apathy. We begin to believe that success is not meant for us or that we are unable to achieve it. This is not only contrary to any objective look at the human condition, it is completely contrary to Scripture.

I am not trying to say that "Everyone is successful, you must only believe that it is so!" I am saying that everyone can be successful, and that they can achieve a type of success that is lasting and meaningful. There is success to be found on the journey that dwarfs anything a mere, momentary achievement can provide.