The Definition Of Success

“What Is Success?” is a question that I often ask people at my seminars and on my recent trip to Europe it was a question that was asked of me many times.

The truth is it doesn't matter what country you live in, most people don't have the foggiest idea as to what success is. They equate success with something such as a college degree, the neighborhood in which a person lives, the type of car a person drives or the type of job he or she has. This is ridiculous! These luxuries are nice to have, but they don't necessarily have anything to do with success.

Who is successful in today's society? To answer this, you must first define your terms. What is success? The best definition I've ever found for success is from the Author and Radio Personality Earl Nightingale who once said: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

Success consists of deciding on what it is you want in life and then spending your days working toward its achievement. What you decide upon is your business and has nothing to do with the ideals or goals of the people around you.

Success is doing the best you can at what you decide to do with your life. It may involve being a teacher. If may be becoming a lawyer, doctor, an engineer, an architect, or starting your own business. Or it may be none of these things.

For example I met a man at my seminar earlier this month in Bonn, Germany who is a painter. He told me how he has followed in his father's footsteps by always showing up at the house he is going to paint at 8:00am and he often brings fresh vegetables to the people he is working for from his garden. This man was happy. He loves his work and he had a wonderfully contagious positive attitude toward life and it showed because he is busy the year round.

That is what success is all about. I consider myself successful, because I love my work and I feel that I'm very good at it. But I'm not more successful because I happen to have a higher education degree than the man I met in Bonn or that I have won many awards in my profession.

Successful people are happy in what they've chosen of their own free will to do. The people who are not successful in life are those who haven't found themselves, who don't have any goals toward which their working to achieve every day.

It's really that simple and it should be left to every person once they are an adult to make their own decisions as to what they want to do with their own life. Remember every decision we make has consequences and we have to live with the decisions we alone make as individuals.

Success in life comes from knowing what you want and then committing yourself to it completely. Whatever it is, it's your decision.