The Truth About Success

Many times it’s presumed that a successful life is every personal goal achieved by the end, an achievement worth a lifetime of effort and dedication. To the same thought, one might claim life a failure if it’s left with un-achieved goals. We anxiously anticipate new beginnings and we live and die by our desire to finish, but ironically lack the fortitude or patience to endure the middle and either rush through it producing mediocrity, or pull out completely leading to catastrophe.

Life is more than a linear progression from point A to point B, an upward line showing where you came from and where you ended up. The problem with this concept is that the only portion of our lives that can be defined linearly is our age, and age is not what ultimately defines us (hopefully). You won’t be successful because you live to be 105, you’ll just be painfully old. As its been said before, life is lived in the margins. Its the in between part that counts.

Where it starts or where it ends holds no comparison to everywhere else it’s capable of going. The risks that we will take, the mistakes that we will make, all will play a role in directing our journey through life. The moments we gave up, or the times we should have, but instead, stood back up (character is often carved more through failure rather than success). A life that’s only experienced success is only experiencing a fraction of what life is and is therefore hardly a life worth living, which in no ways sounds like a successful life.