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How do you measure success?

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:30 am
by TC Talks
It's a simple question. Turkeytop seems to understand the concept, others too.

For me it's having a meaningful relationship with my lovely wife, happy independent educated children, and enough free time to smell the roses and do good in this world.

What does a successful life look like for you?

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:33 am
by moldyoldie
Walking around with a perpetual and genuine smile on one's face.

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 10:25 am
by TC Shuts Up

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:12 am
by Deleted User 24

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 2:38 pm
by Bryce
I judge my success by how my children have turned out. They didn't come with a manual.

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:05 am
by Turkeytop
By all normal measures I'm an abject failure. I'm not rich. I'm not famous. I'm not athletic. I'm lacking in any artistic, musical, or literary talent. I've never once won even third prize at anything.

But I feel successful because I'm content with what I have. I'm wanting nothing.

I used to buy lottery tickets. Never really expecting to win, but enjoying the dream of what I would do if I did win. But now, especially since I retired, I'm living that dream. I don't have to go to work and I get a cheque in the mail every month. What more could I want?

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:55 am
by FET-500
TC Talks wrote:
Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:30 am
It's a simple question. Turkeytop seems to understand the concept, others too.

For me it's having a meaningful relationship with my lovely wife, happy independent educated children, and enough free time to smell the roses and do good in this world.

What does a successful life look like for you?
Beaver tail-smacking while my Collie plays in the river...

Re: How do you measure success?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 11:00 am
by Calvert DeForest
My Pastor presented this scenario in a recent homily, and it was like a light bulb went on:

Imagine you've won the lottery. The prize is $86,400 a day for life. The deposit is made to your bank account promptly at midnight. You have until the following midnight to spend the money. You can only withdraw the what you spend, and you can spend as much as you want on whatever you want. The only caveat is that the bank requires a daily reporting of receipts for every every penny spent. Any money leftover in the account is wiped out at midnight, and your balance is zero. At the same moment, a fresh deposit of $86,400 goes in for you to spend that day. Any unspent money from that deposit will likewise disappear at midnight as the cycle repeats. I can imagine most of us would consider ourselves extremely wealthy with such winnings.

I realize that I've been blessed with such a windfall. The currency I receive is not money, but time. Every day God deposits 86,400 seconds into my time account. He put me here for a purpose, and He wants me to spend as many seconds as I can on that purpose. The seconds I don't spend disappear from my time account at the end of day, and I can never get them back. My time account is replenished with a fresh deposit of 86,400 seconds for the next day. God gives me a wealth of seconds every day and presents me with a myriad of worthwhile expenditures (family, friends, people in need, and so many more). All He asks in return is that I present a pleasing account of my expenditures as a gift to Him. His smile is my gift.

Some people define success in terms of fame, money or materials. To me success is not defined by what we have in life, but what we do with what we're given in life. Most of us don't have thousands of dollars dropped in our bank accounts every day, but we all have a daily deposit in our time account. We never know if the next deposit is coming, or even if we'll get a full deposit today, which makes what we have and what we do with it even more valuable.