A Talk About Success - a podcast by Ani Alexander

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I am not sure you know this, but a while ago I was a self-development blogger. My blog was called Life Probabilities and although I am no longer the owner and the author of the blog it still exists.  Now Vinod is the owner of the Life Probabilities and he is covering self development related topics there so you can check out the blog if you like similar topics.

So today I will present you with one of the blog posts I wrote at Life Probabilities about success. Since the thoughts I had are still valid I decided that I could share them with you here too.

Who doesn’t want to be successful?

Yup, that’s what I thought. No one.

These days there are many talks about becoming successful, not giving up after failure, getting there, striving for perfection and such. All that is supposed to motivate and encourage…

But sometimes, just the opposite happens.

Sometimes reading all those articles and coming back to where you are at that moment may make you even more depressed.

Why is that?

I think it is because many self-development authors contribute to the stereotyping of the meaning of success. The same thing does the TV, the media and the society.

If you ask around about who is successful many will somehow come up with the names of celebrities, rich businessmen, top managers or well-known people.

No one will think of a single mother who raised a creative and happy child. No one will come up with the name of a person, who left everything behind in order to follow his dream. No one will recall the young guy, who spent days and nights outside with his camera in order to finally make that perfect shot he had in mind.

What we need to understand is that success is not a fixed term. Success is different for everyone. For one being successful may mean climbing up the career ladder. For someone else it may mean not working for a corporation. For someone success may be being rich and famous. For someone else it is about a happy family and genuine friends. For some writing and completing a full length novel is already a success, but for someone else the success is becoming a bestselling author.

Besides that your vision of success may be evaluated periodically. At different stages of your life you may have different understandings of success. Life does not stand still and you have the right to change your mind and follow different goals.

Success is a complex term. It is not always obvious and visible. Being true to your values may be a success itself. Reaching inner peace and harmony, may also mean that you are successful.

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey he has one exercise. You have to imagine your funeral. Think about who will be there and what will they say about you and your life. Surpassingly what you would like them to say is what you are supposed to achieve during your life.

For me success is living so that the words I would like to be told at my funeral are told when the time comes.

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