WHAT IS SUCCESS?
If you were asked to define success, what would be your answer? Chances are you have never given it a deep thought.
DEFINITIONS OF SUCCESS
There are as many definitions for SUCCESS as there are people in the world. If you were to ask a businessman his definition of success, he might say that being successful means earning a lot of profit. A Student would talk in terms of examination success; a genuine Pastor would say success is winning soul for God while a housewife might define success as raising good children and a lovely family.
TRUE SUCCESS
Success is more than any of the foregoing definitions. True success is a journey and not a destination. It is a gradual process that entails three factors:
1. Direction. Having a life purpose and then
establish a plan to continually work
toward its fulfilment and
accomplishment.
2. Balance. Keeping perspective of every
area of your life: health, family, friends,
relationships, work, spirituality. Balance
in all things yields true happiness.
3. Belief. No man will become successful who does not possess BELIEF. The greater his belief, the greater his degree of success. Successful men are believers.
With these three factors, we can therefore define success, in tne words of C.T. Jones , as the, ” progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile goals, established with balance and stabilized by belief”.
Very view people really understand success. When we say a person is successful, we seek evidence from his material possessions. Hence, we talk about the “richest man” in the world, the richest man in Nigeria, the richest woman in Africa, and so on.
Not that material wealth is not a measure of success, but it is not sufficient. A person who stole public funds budgetted for social and economic infrastructures, who defrauded others and cheated his business partners ( some even kill others) to accumulate wealth , is not a successful person.
Material possession is not the only measure of success. Parents who reared God-fearing , educated and well-behaved children, in a peaceful and love-dominated family environment, are successful individuals.
Medical Doctors who save life; Teachers who mould the mental, emotional , physical and spiritual development of children; civil servants who work selflessly to make the society functional; all the professionals who execute their mandates conscientiously are all examples of genuinely successful individuals. They may not have millions or billions ( they even talk of trillions now) of naira or dollars.
Every genuinely successful person must have a fundamental purpose with definite plan of action to achieve it. Ask any of the so-called “successful” people in our society today , ” what has been your life objective”? . Only very few of them would be able to offer convincing answers. Ask them of the plans of action they crafted and followed, you would be shocked with the rabble rousing rendition you get. And do not ask question about balance , as there would be no answers.
Many pursue material wealth at the expense of their health, spouses, children, friends and relationships and their souls. The mantra is, “money- at -all’cost”. Even our arts ( music, drama, films) often project this craze.
Great and genuinely successful people lead balanced lives fuelled by goal- oriented actions and strong belief in themselves , in humanity and in God. Any human endeavour that doesn’t entail these cannot be described as successful . It is nothing but a monstrous misery.
