<p>Just wanted to hear some adults perspective on this question.</p>
<p>My knee jerk response: A happy, self supporting life, and a life of giving of yourself to help others.</p>
<p>Being able to provide food, shelter & clothing to your family, and also creating a lifestyle that brings you joy. That might be rural or city, rich or poor, etc. But as long as you have the basic necessities and have joy (and health insurance!) you should consider yourself successful.</p>
<p>Some people want to be investment bankers on Wall street and want a life that high income provides; some people want a simpler life, both are fine.</p>
<p>That’s what I tell my kids.</p>
<p>I have a very happy life. I have a husband of 27 years - he is absolutely wonderful! I have two terrific, well adjusted kids. My oldest is working hard to realize her dreams, and I am so very proud of her. My youngest is a great kid who I am confident will make the most of the college journey he begins next month. I have a job … well, it doesn’t pay much, but I DO enjoy it for the most part. I get along with my family & with my husband’s family. I get along well with others & still maintain friendships with my very closest college friends. I have all of what I need and most of what I want.</p>
<p>I consider myself very successful.</p>
<p>happy life = love
successful life = making a contribution</p>
<p>geomom, what do you mean by making a contribution? do you mean volunteer work, helping out the next generation? etc…</p>
<p>Raising happy, responsible children.</p>
<p>Getting as much enjoyment out of life as you can.</p>
<p>Someone is a success in life who lives with integrity and love, and doesn’t let life defeat them.</p>
<p>Loving the people you live with and having them love you. Enjoying the work you do. Having enough money to have the things you need without worrying, and a little bit extra.</p>
<p>Making a contribution can be defined so many ways!
It could be doing a stellar job at your work, guiding the next generation,
volunteer work, creating beauty whether as a musician, artist, or even as
a gardener with a beautiful front yard. It could be wiping the counter with
a paper towel after you use the sink in a public restroom, or being more
polite and upbeat then “necessary.”</p>
<p>I love “making a contribution” as a mission because it inspires so many
creative answers. Hey, making a contribution could even be making useful
and polite posts on this bulletin board – you never know who you will help!</p>
<p>I think I am successful if I have options in terms of what I want to do with my life.</p>
<p>I think a “success in life” is leaving a positive mark on this earth as a living being. In other words, making some kind of difference. This can be achieved by, at one extreme, inventing a cure for a disease or contributing to the research, to the other, raising a child that might make a difference, teaching someone, or helping someone in need etc.</p>
<p>None of us are perfect and most of us are just are ordinary every day folk. But our simple acts can and do make a difference.</p>
<p>I remember thinking about this when I was in collage, 100 years ago, and thinking that my purpose as a human was to make some contribution, big or small, that changes the world. Maybe its a big contribution (99.9% of us do not do these) or a very small one. That’s success.</p>
<p>Success for me is attaining simplicity, having and giving love, attaining goals that you have set for yourself, Inner grace and peace.</p>
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<p>Being in love, being loved, and not needing therapy for mental or physical conditions.</p>
<p>If some little corner of the world – a place, a relationship, a situation – is better when I leave it than when I arrived, then I was a success.</p>
<p>I believe in the below definition of success. I do not believe that success is measured by the things that one has acquired.</p>
<p>"To laugh often and much;</p>
<p>To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;</p>
<p>To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;</p>
<p>To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;</p>
<p>To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;</p>
<p>To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.</p>
<p>This is to have succeeded."</p>
<p>— inaccurately attributed to
Ralph Waldo Emerso</p>
<p>I have a simpler notion of being successful in life… The less of the “could haves”, “should haves”, “would haves” the better.</p>
<p>Northstarmom…
I used to carry Emerson’s quote in my wallet. I loved what I felt was a simple yet profound saying. However, when I recently looked back on my life I was saddened by it. Actually, by the terms of the quote, and by most of what has been written so far on this thread, I have been very successful (great children, loving family, modest but comfortable home, plenty of volunteer activities where I felt I made a difference…). So what’s wrong? I feel very blessed, but not necessarily “successful”. I feel I should have reached higher in life. I was never mentored by any one who pushed me to reach for the stars. Who knows what COULD have been! So now I’m trying to share that sentiment with the students I am fortunate enough to teach on a part-time basis.</p>
<p>kjofkw, it is commendable to encourage young people to follow their dreams, but be careful not to convey your own disappointment at not having become “more.” Reaching for the stars is great … but we can find happiness and success even if we don’t actually reach the stars we set out to reach. It’s not necessarily the goal that is important … the journey is often more satisfying than reaching the goal.</p>
<p>I would love to have a dream job or a ton of money. Not having those things certainly does not diminish the fact that I consider the life I DO have to be a success.</p>