Redefining Success
I have been working on setting goals this week. It is helpful for me to set a target so I can focus on a few things that can have the most impact on my life.
If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time. To begin this process I start thinking about what I really want in my life, things like what my ideal week would look like.
It is at times like this that I have to be more aware of my definition for success. How you or I define success will in a big way determine our long term contentment.
The problem with most of our views on success is that we focus on thing like prosperity, status, or fame. We think of the next job promotion or the next group of people that we will be introduced to.
We think about people knowing our name and increasing our social influence. All of those are good things and should be things that we set goals for, but they cannot be our definition for success.
If we determine our successfulness by our ability to achieve these things, then we will never find contentment because every time we hit one of our goals, we move the goalpost a little further out. Each achievement is temporary and a new goal is set.
In order to become truly successful and find contentment in the journey, we must redefine what it means to be a success story.
We need to define it as finding the thread of God’s grace and mercy in our lives and embracing it. As we discover God’s plan and purpose for us and then live that out, we become satisfied.
Then, when we find ourselves in places of prosperity, status, or fame, it is so much sweeter and more enjoyable because our heart and identity are secure.
