Over the years, I have read numerous books and heard
hundreds of speakers who all claim to have the secrets
of success.

To put it more specifically:
what success is
what success can be
how to find success
how to maintain success
how to enjoy your success
how to feel successful when you aren’t
how to share your success

I would like to focus on what success isn’t - not what
it is and what gets in our ways as we search after it.

Please, keep in mind that everyone defines success
differently. Each of us puts our own personal twist on
what we feel represents success in our lives or
careers. To one person, success is money; to another,
it is good health. To many, it is a pleasant
lifestyle, while to others, just getting through
another day is considered a success.

During my lifetime, I have been at the bottom of the
barrel and I have been to the mountaintop and viewed
the world from a vantage point that very few people
ever do. I have known the sting of failure and the
thrill of achievement. But no matter what my outer
circumstances were, the one concept that helped me
maintain a sense of inner peace, life balance and calm
was my personal definition of success. This definition
became the watchword for my life during whatever was
going on in my world, whether it was positive or
negative.

Success to me isn’t:
Having more money that you ever can spend
Career accolades or fame
A position of influence or power
A promotion to a position in a career or organization
that you hate
The freedom to do nothing
More education that you ever will use
A new car every year
A bigger house because you can afford it
More club memberships than you have time for

None of us has the right to judge others by our
standards or definition of success. During the pas
years, I have been in front of over 10,000 people in
more than 15 States as a professional
computer/technological Instructor, and I can tell you
that in each of those audiences, there were people who
were more and less successful than I am. Ah, but
according to what or whose standards? You see, as soon
as I make the previous statement, I am assuming that
your definition of success is that same as mine.
Success to me means living the way you wants to live
your life without infringing on the right of others
and the ability to support that lifestyle based on
your own talent, time, energy and ability. It doesn’t
mean that if you inherit a million dollars and live
the life of leisure, then you are successful. That
just makes you lucky (maybe, or maybe not).

What is success to you these days? Has your definition
changed at all during the past few months? Years?
After you hit 25? 35? 45? Or even 100?

Getting in touch with what success isn’t for you can
be an excellent way to help you define what success is
to you.

Have a nice day and may all your dreams ever come
through.

Daniel O. Adarighofua