How do you measure success?
If I should walk up to you and ask you:
Hey! Hello,, How do you measure success?
What would be your reply?
Would you give me a straight answer or you would pause and think for a number of minutes?
Well, however your actions may be, you may have seen someone successful in your area and also read or listened to the story of famous successful figures in the news or on the internet.
At times we can't help but wish to be like them.
Yet so many times we fall into the trap of short-sightedness about success due to our immediate situation.
As a result, we make decisions base on our immediate need (may that never happen to you).
Instead of thinking about what others think, why not try to think about what you know is right?
I pose this question to a young man called Felix (name changed). And his reply was:
“Success to me is when a page on Facebook displays my name and is captioned as public figure” (And he was equally right).
Children wish in their heart: “if I can get much money from dad I will buy that game console”..
As adult you probably have some plans in your heart every day like : “if I can work much longer hours, I could build that dream house, a nice car and a happy family".
We can go on and on specifying many different examples, but wait. Can any adjustment be made to these few of the many ways people measure success wrongly?
We’ve been focused on the wrong thing namely ‘false success’ for so long. And have made some terribly awful judgments along the way—both personally and collectively.
Success is often wrongly associated with material wealth. And such is a false success and it is purely superficial.
Tell me; is it any good to a man in gaining the world and at the end loses his health and soul?
Let me test you now with these following hypothetical scenarios involving “Elma and Kela”.
How do you actually measure success?
Elma owns a business, a house and a family. He is honest, hard-working, and courteous. Elma’s business has flourished, and as a result, he and his family live comfortably ok.
+++++++++++++++
Kela owns a similar business and also own a house of his own and a family too; and he makes far more money than Elma. In an effort to beat the competition, though, kela has become a workaholic and has numerous illnesses.
Who would you say is truly successful?
Is it Kela? If you say the two, Elma and Kela were successful; you might be measuring success physically by results only, regardless of the means by which those results were achieved.
But on the contrary, if you chose Elma, you probably measure success by a person’s character traits and moral principle of work.
Which is a good thing to do.
A person’s character traits include Contentment in circumstance. Often times, contentment remains elusive for both the rich and the poor.
It is a struggle for humanity no matter their lot in life. Rich is the man or woman who can find contentment in either circumstance.
Another character trait is Self-control. We are humans, people that too often give control of our most precious asset to another.
We fall under the influence of substances, possessions, or entertainment. And when we do, our life is no longer our own.
That is why those who retain self-control in the face of addiction ought to be recognized as unique and judged accordingly.
Now to help you measure success accurately, you need to understand that false success is based on image; true success is based on proper value.
