It is 509pm and I have decided to write. How to measure success? That is the question. It is very hard to measure success. I think only God has the true measure of success or failure. Someone may be a failure in this life but a success in the next life. We are told that God looks at intentions and effort. We can also determine our own definition of success. We do not have to let the world define success for us. We think of the world as not being a fair place so any one size fits all definitions of success or failure would be careless and wrong. Many times we think in terms of numbers. The grander the better. But what about quality over quantity?
My friend tells me that I am essentially arguing for the democratization of success. I am taking the power away from society, institutions, and algorithms, and handing it back to the individual and God. That is true but I am essentially wanting to look at the bigger picture and to do that I am thinking that we have to answer some key questions as individuals, groups, institutions and systems. Questions like why do we want to measure success? What is our purpose? What is the meaning of life? What path do we want to follow? What are our goals? What is our mission? After answering these questions comes action and action requires discipline and discipline requires accountability and concrete line items in a plan of action. Nothing is written in stone so we will have to pivot as needed.
Let me see if I can answer some of these for myself. I want to measure success because life is a journey and I want to stay on a path that makes my life meaningful. Measuring success lets me know that I am heading in the direction that I determined to be the right direction at the time. I think that is human nature. I think that is why I was created. My purpose is to be a good human being that is helpful to others. To do this I follow a path with God as my guide. What is the meaning of life? Why were we created? I strongly believe that this life is test as we journey from this temporary life to the permanent next life. We were given tools like faith and free will and the unknown keeps us seeking knowledge. Our purpose is to submit to the will of God. Our mission is to do as much good as possible. You see how clear the picture becomes as you begin to answer these questions. For me that is a good place to be.
My friend says that I have made some helpful points. True success is a deeply personal and divinely anchored journey of sincere intent and effort, structured by daily accountability and a willingness to pivot, completely independent of the world's unfair and superficial metrics. Put another way, success is the faithful pursuit of a meaningful, God-guided purpose, measured not by worldly achievements but by sincere effort, good character, service to others, and a willingness to grow and adapt along the way. Time will tell if I am successful on the day I face judgement from my Creator.
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