There are some parents who base their success on the financial inheritance they can leave their children. My dad felt this way. He always wanted to leave us a financial inheritance. I remember him talking to me and telling me, “You know son, when one of my inventions pays off I am going to buy that brand new pickup truck that I have always wanted. I am going to put $500,000 in the bank to take care of your mother if I die first. I am going to give you kids a large sum of money each. I am not going to wait until I die to give it to you.” He was getting me excited just thinking about this possibility. I said, “I am going to take that money and buy a large home on the water. I look forward to getting up in the morning, looking out my window, and watching the seagulls walking along the sandy beach. That will be the good life.”
In the outcome he was not able to leave us a large sum of money. In fact, it took what he had saved up to pay for his expenses at the assisted living facility along with the proceeds from selling his and mother’s home that they had lived in for years. However, he left his children something more valuable for our inheritance than money. Quoting from the book I wrote My Dad The Smartest 7th Grader on Earth…. “Being average has never caught anyone’s attention. The average person gives up. My dad was not average. He lived a life of significance even though his inventions never paid off financially. His example of pursuing his dreams, not giving up and holding on to hope is his legacy to his children and people who know him. You can create the same legacy starting today by continuing to plug away.” My dad also taught his children how to treat people with dignity and respect. I consider my dad a successful person.
There are some people who think of success as stepping on other people’s toes to move to the top. They use people and cheat them out of what is rightfully theirs to get promoted personally or gain financially from their own business or career. In other words, they don’t care who or how many people they hurt just as long they get what they want. I believe most folks wouldn’t consider these people truly successful. With so many definitions and ways people view success, what is the true definition of being successful? I don’t know if there is really one right answer to the definition of success. I like the definition of success as the pursuit of a worthy goal. A worthy goal could be simply showing up consistently for your grandson’s baseball games when you don’t feel like it. Giving out love through your actions is most definitely a worth goal. As long as you are pursuing a worthy goal then you are successful.
I am convinced of this; true success begins with following a higher source of power than ourselves. I am also convinced to live a fruitful and meaningful life that matters now and will matter in the hereafter, we must learn how to respect ourselves and other people along with treating people in ways that will help all parties concerned in any transaction. We must have food, clothing, and shelter to survive our few short years on this earth. To support ourselves we must learn how to earn a living and manage our finances wisely to function in this life. It seems to me to function properly as we are working to supply the essentials in life that it would benefit us to keep our body in the best shape as possible. I would consider a successful person as one who over the years is striving to take care of his or her body by exercising and eating properly. It seems to me most reasonable people would agree with that statement.
I believe to function successfully in this world we must have a higher source to lean on especially when times are tough and we don’t understand the challenges we are facing in our daily lives. We need a spiritual source to give us faith and hope for a better tomorrow and at the same time help us to be able to cope with the problems and challenges we are facing in the present. I personally believe that hope is in a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some of you might disagree with that statement. For those of you who don’t believe in Christ I would ask you how are things currently working out in your life? Are you at peace? Do you have joy in your life? I would think that most reasonable thinking people would agree that life can be tough especially when we are constantly depending upon ourselves alone to figure out things that we don’t have an answer to. I would urge you to look for the answers in the 66 books of the main book which is called the Bible. You will be enlightened by how a lot of reading in the Bible and a little faith can help you become successful. This inspiration of hope resulting in a relationship with Jesus will lead us to our true calling in life which will help our mental state of being.
I would think that a person who has a relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ would be considered successful. I am convinced there is no better way to success in this short life than preparing for our life hereafter. According to the Bible those who know and follow Christ will live forever. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” -NKJV. If one has invested in their future wellbeing beyond this life which will in fact end sooner or later for all of us, I would consider that person successful.