Success: Worldly or Godly
What is success?
How do we get it?
I’ve been having a number of conversations with people recently.
As I’m working on an MBA, people are naturally curious and often question what the goals are after I attain the degree.
Success is Your Version: NOT Someone Else’s
Throughout these conversations, people have a tendency to tell me what success is.
They say things like, “Why don’t you specialize more? Then you’ll be able to command a higher salary.”
Or they’ll remark, “Why are you even getting your MBA now, why don’t you wait a few more years first?”
Occasionally they say, “Oh, you don’t need to do that, you could just advance where you are.”
Some even say, “An MBA will only get you so far but really, it isn’t worth much.”
So what is success?
Because let’s be honest, no one else can define success for us, because nobody but us knows what it means to be a success.
Success is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “a favorable or desired outcome.”
The world defines success for you differently than you do.
The world defines success for you differently than God does.
“I consider the success of my day based on the seeds I sow, not the harvest I reap.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
Success is the result of what?
More often than not, success is the fruit of our labor.
Success is generally a result of small actions compounded together over time.
Every day, we need to ensure that the day is a success.
Overall success is a combination of small successes.
As many people have said, “It took 10 years for me to be an overnight success.”
I think back to when I wrote, “Was Today a Success?”
“Oh I can be successful when this happens or when I have this,” people often say.Success is not about the outcomes but about the inputs. We cannot control what happens, we can only control what we make happen.
It’s not about the future, it’s about the present, we all have value and potential and things that we can do for other people that will benefit them in ways we could never imagine.
We will not always see the ripple effects of our successes, but that should not lead us to believe that they don’t exist. Just because we don’t always see our success or the fruit of our labor does not mean we should be discouraged.
Little by little; day by day; moment by moment — one success after another — keep going.
“You will become as small as your controlling desire, or as great as your dominant aspiration.” — James Allen
