What does it mean to be successful

2,202 Views | 32 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by BusterAg
Star Wars Memes Only
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Is success measured by how much money you make? How powerful you are? How loved you are? How many threads you can make in twenty minutes?

How do you define success?
diehard03
How long do you want to ignore this user?
it seems to me that it's purely a social construct...as in, what it is is determined on who I am trying to impress/be better than/etc.
Dilettante
How long do you want to ignore this user?
It's an objective quantity measured by the formula used in The Good Place.
kurt vonnegut
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Forkin' love that shirt.
Zobel
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Am I the only one who works? How is everyone buzzed but me already!?
kurt vonnegut
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Zobel said:

Am I the only one who works? How is everyone buzzed but me already!?


I musta spent less time posting here and finished work earlier.
AGC
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Zobel said:

Am I the only one who works? How is everyone buzzed but me already!?


Dude. Been at the bar for hours. Success is working less than you apparently.

Also discovered Roku and blue coat gins tonight.
UTExan
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Being welcomed into our Heavenly home. Everything else is just window dressing.
It is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness- Sir Terence Pratchett
“ III stooges si viveret et nos omnes ad quos etiam probabile est mittent custard pies”
chimpanzee
How long do you want to ignore this user?
It's not about money, power, prestige or pleasure. I'm pretty sure of that.
dermdoc
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
For me, success is fulfilling the destiny God has ordained for me. That is the way you glorify God which is our purpose.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
Dad-O-Lot
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.
Win At Life
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
dermdoc said:

For me, success is fulfilling the destiny God has ordained for me. That is the way you glorify God which is our purpose.


Ah, yes, my favorite verse.

Leviticus 29:16

"Blessed are the successful, for they shall fulfill the destiny of God."
AggieRain
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Dad-O-Lot said:

all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.
dermdoc
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Dad-O-Lot said:

all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.
That is good.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
88Warrior
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Dad-O-Lot said:

all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.


Yes sir!
FIDO95
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Dad-O-Lot said:

all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.


So true.

"Don't compare yourself to other people. Only compare yourself to who you were yesterday. Every day make incremental improvements to make yourself better then you were yesterday." -Jordan Peterson
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
Dilettante
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Sounds like a good way to become complacent. Compare yourself to others. If they're improving faster than you, figure out why. 2 hours of X may not be good enough if your competition is doing 4.
Ulrich
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Contentment and complacency don't have to be the same thing.

Other people may be useful as a benchmark at times, and if competition makes you happy then more power to you. But if competition and comparison are leading you to neuroticism and discontent then it's hard to say that you're "successful" no matter how much money you make. You're never going to feel successful.
Ulrich
How long do you want to ignore this user?
My definition of success is financial independence, lack of emotional insecurities, a family, and waking up every morning excited about the day.

I'm well along the path for some but not even started on others.

At my current pace I'll achieve financial independence long before my career peaks. When that happens I'm not going to feel a need to keep driving just to prove that I'm "better" than other people. That's not really something I need anymore, other things are more important to me.
Ulrich
How long do you want to ignore this user?
But being able to stop driving hard and not worry about your place in the labor market is a luxury that has to be earned. It's healthy to get past that, but a lot of people think they should be able to reap the rewards without putting in the effort.

I get really irritated when people want to work 40 hour weeks, take 3-4 weeks of vacation every year, ignore calls on the weekends, get months off for child care and think they are being unfairly treated when they don't advance very quickly.

We all make choices. Some choices give you great things in your personal life. Others mean that you learn more, deliver more value, and grow as a worker and leader. Trade offs are real and they are often fair.

Edit: I'm assuming that people are using their time at work equally well. Hours worked are not a perfect metric. But, I believe that the superstar effect where the best people are 10x as valuable as the average is because superstars tend to work longer hours with less wasted time and a much more proactive and thoughtful approach to delivering value during that time. I doubt if raw ability accounts for more than one or two of those "x's".
Ferg
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Having more people at Thanksgiving dinner than we have seats for at the main table
Star Wars Memes Only
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Ferg said:

Having more people at Thanksgiving dinner than we have seats for at the main table


This is easy, get a tiny-ass table.
Star Wars Memes Only
How long do you want to ignore this user?
dargscisyhp said:

Ferg said:

Having more people at Thanksgiving dinner than we have seats for at the main table


This is easy, get a tiny-ass table.


Also, in b4 xkcd.
SW-14
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Obviously it's dependent on how many blue stars you get. I can't believe nobody has answered correctly yet.
Aggrad08
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
dermdoc said:

Dad-O-Lot said:

all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.
That is good.
I don't know, if I break my leg I'm pretty unhappy, and I couldn't give a damn what your leg is doing. But for many things yes, we judge ourselves relative to others.
kurt vonnegut
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
In that case, most of us live sad little lives compared to those in F16.
diehard03
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Quote:

I get really irritated when people want to work 40 hour weeks, take 3-4 weeks of vacation every year, ignore calls on the weekends, get months off for child care and think they are being unfairly treated when they don't advance very quickly.

Your posts read like that kid on the playground that goes around to every kid and says "race you to that tree"...and just takes off with the other kid not even hearing/caring/wanting to race.

it's great that you have your goals,, but it seems like you need someone else to care about them to be real.

You should be ecstatic that those people I quoted exist. They are easy to get around. That said, those people know exactly why they aren't more successful. You also know exactly why you're not more successful. Sometimes, we just like to whine because it distracts us from that knowledge.

I hope you get everything you're looking for.
Dad-O-Lot
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Aggrad08 said:

dermdoc said:

Dad-O-Lot said:

all unhappiness comes from comparison. So I suppose you are successful when you no longer compare yourself to anyone else.
That is good.
I don't know, if I break my leg I'm pretty unhappy, and I couldn't give a damn what your leg is doing. But for many things yes, we judge ourselves relative to others.
I think even then. Compared to how my leg felt before being broken, I'm pretty unhappy. If everyone had a broken leg, it would just seem normal.

but yes, I see and understand your distinction.
DirtDiver
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Success:

Eternity secured:
In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalms 16:11
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.


A life well lived:
Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.'

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.


A future realized without the curse of sin and death:
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He *said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
7 Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.
M1Buckeye
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Being saved by Jesus and living with him in eternity.
Barnyard96
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Strictly talking career, I used to measure it by how fast I could climb the ladder. Now I measure it by how quick I can exit the nearest door.

Time is now the sweetest measure of them all....and I have eternity to look forward to.
Star Wars Memes Only
How long do you want to ignore this user?
As I get older that song Time by Pink Floyd has started hitting differently.
PA24
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Taming my tongue. Forgiving myself for my sinful ways both past and present. Praying daily with my wife, days when I am actually feeling blessed and protected by the Holy Ghost.



BusterAg
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I have one extremely well adjusted daughter, that is going to kill it in college this year, is extremely self-assured, knows that she is loved, and is well positioned for financial success in this life, and happiness / work life balance.

I have another in High School. She still needs some additional guidance, but trending in the right direction.

Being a good father is what I consider to be my most important job. Out of everything else I am, a good father is probably my best attribute, based on results.

So, there is that. I'm pretty happy.
Refresh
Page 1 of 1
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.