by, TB Wright

            Success. Most people know that they want to be successful. Or do they? Successful? What does that mean? Don't kid yourself. In this society every time we use that word, we are immediately immersed within beliefs about success. Money, cars, houses, prestige, accomplishment, family, friends, and happiness. . .wait a minute! None of these things are success! They're money, or cars, or family! What then is success? Success, according to Webster, is: "the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like, a successful performance of achievement." Is that what you had in mind when you thought of success? If you did, then the way to determine how successful you are would be to add up all the things you have in your life, and then compare them to other people's things, or how many things you have had in the past, and then determine whether you are successful or not. This is what most people do; they compare. Yet in nearly every instance, what happens when you compare is that there will always either be someone who has more than you, or in your mind at least, appears to have done it better, or, there will be something from the past that you once had, that now feels like it's been left out. Therefore, the conclusion of your study will be that you are not yet successful!

            That determination of "not successful yet" doesn’t sound all that satisfying to me. In fact, that comparison sounds like a formula for staying unhappy. It is! Yet all the life coaches who are doing well will tell you that happiness is not dependent upon success. So then, why do they appear to be so successful, always touting how rich they are, or how many cars they have, or the big new house they live in? Maybe they've got happiness and success confused as well. I know, they'll say that money and happiness have nothing to do with each other, so then, why are they so rich? And, if happiness is not dependent upon success, upon the having of family, money, avocation, cars, etc., then what is it dependent on? Nothing exists unconnected in this Universe. Our thoughts, our actions, our very way of being, are all the cause of something. So what causes us to have the experience of being successful? One thing, and one thing only, and it's not being happy either: it's our intentions.

            What? You don't have to be happy, rich, or joyous in order to be successful? No, you do not. All you have to be is someone whose intentions, the energy directed toward the completion of something, is very high. That's why you see so many people who have accomplished so much in their lives, and yet are not either happy, or in the experience of themselves as being successful. If you want to have a career, a nice house, a great family, or any other thing, all you have to do is gather up your energy and direct it toward the having of these things. In that way, you will find the way to be successful, the way to goal completion, and the way to adding up your accomplishments. But is this what you really want when you say you desire to be successful? Before you say ”Yes!" think about this carefully.

            Isn't what humans really want, first and foremost, besides the benefits of success, to be happy? To be satisfied no matter what they're doing? One of the most successful human beings I have ever met ran a small grocery store on the corner of a street far away from city life. I have never met anyone who so simply loved everyone she met, and always talked good about people, no matter what. She could find the good in anything. And when she spoke, you too could see it there. There was never any comparing or contrasting in her speaking, only an enjoyment of exactly what really was. Now there was a person who was successful! Why is that? Because no matter what she did or where she looked for confirmation, her experience was one of satisfaction. She was satisfied with what had been, with what was, and then with what was to come. Think about it. Doesn't that sound like success to you? It does to me! Because what's the point of accumulating anything, including a family, if you're not going to be happy with it, regardless of the form it takes. Sometimes we create things in forms that we're not happy with, yet does that mean we have to be unhappy with what we've created? No! I never expected to create a family in the form of a single parent, but here I am, happily enjoying my kids far beyond what I ever thought possible. Because success isn't in the form something comes in, it's in the feel of it. Think about that too. If I didn't feel great about my family, right now, in its present form, than when would I feel satisfied with them? When?

            So then, all those life coaches are right! It doesn't matter how much you have, but how you feel about what you have that makes you successful. Maybe Webster needs to modify his definition of success then! Appreciation is the key to your experience of success, regardless of whether your intentions are to create more in your life, or stay where you are, contentedly living your own way. And that's important, in this, and any other life game: to live it your own way. No life coach in the world can imagine what your success would look like for you. They may point out all the great things they have, but that's not your success. Your success is to "Say The Way You Play©" and then to discover what it would take to have your life mirror that inner desire of yours, whatever it is. You will discover how to do that from the strength of your own personal intentions, sometimes using a life coach, and sometimes through the sheer momentum built up from your strong desires, but either way, you will succeed, because your success is inevitable. That's right! Regardless of the outcome, what you intend, you will experience, even if it's not the experience of success! This puts you right at the center of your world, in control of your experience of your life, regardless of the form your life is coming in. And the irony is, the more you realize what power you have to direct your experience of the outcomes of any circumstance in your life, the more you will successfully direct what those forms turn out to be. And isn't that control of our own destinies what we really want anyway? Now that's success!

  TB Wright is the creator of The One Penny Millionaire!™ web based seminar series, and the author of  Be BAD! Do Good! How To Get What You Want In Spite Of Yourself! which is available at www.onepennymillionaire.com. "It's your abundance. Get used to it!"© 

 Free Reprint Articles from Newsklik.com