The Measure of Success

What does it mean to me to be successful?

For me, because of the challenge I have set myself, I have been forced to confront this question over the last few weeks and I am still struggling to come to an exact conclusion.

Of course, success is measured differently by everybody - and it does not always hold monetary value. The single mother might consider herself a success if she can find the time to get a manicure once a month, or if she can get to work on time after getting her children off to school. The father of three might consider himself successful if he can find time for work, spending quality time with his family and still manage to squeeze in the odd game of golf. The high school student might consider herself a success if she scrapes through her exams with a pass grade, yet her peer might hold very different expectations of themselves and only feel successful if they achieve an outstanding result for their exams. 

Now, I've always considered myself to be a big picture kinda gal and have needed to work towards large goals to measure my successes. That 4 year Bachelor of Education degree I hold? I got a big buzz from attaining that one. The dream of owning my own home? Well, that was another long term goal we had to work hard and slowly at achieving. Admittedly, I have not always been very good at living in the moment and often feel that I will only feel successful if I have large goals to work towards.

But what about celebrating the small successes along the way to attaining those larger goals? Or what about simply celebrating every baby step of each day?

As part of my resolve to remedy my 'always looking to the future' kind of attitude I have vowed to notice and show gratitude for the smallest of things in each day. Being the app addicted chick that I am, I went searching and found a great little app simply called 'Gratitude!' (It costs $1.99 on iphone) which allows me to record the things I am grateful for every day, rate my day out of five stars and even add a little photo. It reminds me to reflect on my day, feel confident that each day has been successful in some way (even if it means feeling grateful that Max only spilled his bowl of spaghetti mostly on the tiles and not entirely on the carpet) and feeling lucky to be me.

I've come to the conclusion that my short and long term goals will keep evolving and that's okay. Part of my 365 day challenge is to set a long term goal related to the business. To quote myself- "...to create a successful, thriving business by which I can support myself and my family...". In reflection, I really have no idea when I will actually feel the business is a 'success', but I'm aiming for being able to earn at least one days teacher's wage and drop a day at school in one year so that I can be there for my son when he is in his preschool year. That, at least, would be a great start. I will be celebrating that success when it happens and then I will be setting myself a bigger goal. I'll keep you posted on that one!

I urge you to try noticing your successes in each day - even if it means that you got your little ones to bed in time to sit down and watch your favourite TV show, or you heard a great song in the car on your way to work that had you bopping along. Or, like me, you didn't get your eyes scratched out by your cat when you had to shove a worming tablet down her throat. That near miss I am very grateful for.

Now... if you'll excuse me, I have a third attempt at cleaning red spaghetti sauce out of carpet to make.

Cheers!

Lisa