Success Defined
Success Defined
If we were to sit in a room with 10 people…(definitely a hundred people or more)...and passed out sheets of paper and asked everyone to write down (even on a small 3 X 5 card) a couple of sentences of what “success looks like”. I'd be willing to bet that we would get many different types of answers. In fact, I dare say that there would not necessarily be one answer that looks the same.
Why is that?
I think that we all have our own different definition of what success is.
For some people, success is a simply status. It's “I worked my way up through this university. I got this degree and then I entered this job entry level and I attained these things. I was promoted and I moved up and I earned this title.”
That title may be attached to a certain level of income, (sometimes a little bit, and sometimes a lot). And so we go through the process of defining our success.
Maybe through our bank account
Maybe what possessions we have,
Maybe what we drive that's in the garage
Maybe the square footage of our home
Maybe the area in which we live.
Maybe for us, success is lived through our spouse. If we're married or through that significant other that we cherish. Maybe, if we have someone like that...then we're successful
Maybe, (those of us that have children) if our child attains this and gets that badge or that trophy, then I'm successful.
I believe all of these things in and of themselves can be really great and positive things.
These are “Benchmarks”, valued relationships or accomplishments in and of our life we aspire to attain and accomplish. Adding a digit to the bank account is not necessarily a bad thing, but my question for us today is “At what cost?”
When we look at defining success, I would encourage you to write it down.
Success for me looks like _________________ (write it down)
I would encourage you not to just define success in one small area of your life, but I would submit for your consideration that your relationships matter. People matter. Yes. What you do to impact others through the workforce and the workplace. It matters. I think who we are matters. I believe how we treat others matters. I would encourage you to kind of just step back from the “rat race” (if you're in that) or maybe building that blueprint in that plan and you say, “Hey, in two years I want to do this... in five years I want to do this.”
All of that is good. We do that, but I want to make sure that today you and I possibly look at what is true success.
Let's define that. And then based on that definition, let's start to walk that out and build that out.
And anything that interferes with that or potentially could sabotage the true meaning and true definition of success...we possibly have to move that to the side and even say “no” to good things.
And so for you today (and for me), let's write down what success looks like.
Let's define it.
Let's work toward it.
And let's have others in our life that can speak in such a way - where maybe if we step out of bounds from time to time - they can nudge us back...or maybe kick us back, uh, toward reaching our goals the right way.
Let’s define success in such a way that impacts others and makes a difference in this world.
Tombstone
Tombstone
What will your Tombstone say?
What will your tombstone say? Beyond the obvious...of when you were born and when we all at some point - leave this earth.
There's a tombstone
There's a Memorial
There's a place that symbolizes that we walked this earth.
Many times there's a statement of honor, a proverb, a Bible verse or a quote that that person attempted to live their life by. And I think that when we look at the dash - essentially the time that we're here on earth - the conversation gets pretty serious.
I think we may not often chew on that, so to speak.
We may not dwell on that because that's not always an easy topic.
I want to encourage you today to think about what you want your life to count...your “mark”. How are you going to leave your “mark” on this earth?
You might be really young, you might be a teenager, you might be in your 20s or 30s, or you may be in a season of life where you don't know how many days you have left.
If you woke up today and you're thankful for another day….if you don't know what tomorrow holds...we can still take hope.
None of us are guaranteed tomorrow.
So today reflect and think about what you want your tombstone to say.
In one or two sentences - the theme of our life is summarized. I hope as you and I live our lives, that we would be the kind of people that would love others, encourage others, help our neighbor along the way, make this world a better place, be a hope carrier to a world and a generation that so desperately needs it.
So think about that.
What you want your tombstone to say? Write it down. And once you say, “That's what I want my life to be and how I want it to count!” Then take action, and start to live that out day by day, week by week, month by month. And by the grace of God, hopefully we all have many, many years left on this earth...but we know that we have today. So let's live life today (in such a way) that whatever is written on our tombstone - we, and future generations - our family, those that bear our name could say “Yes, they lived a life of impact.”
“They lived a life of significance…” I think when we do that, we're living life to the fullest.