Monday, June 14, 2010

Redefining Success and Happiness

I've added a description to the blog - redefining success and happiness - which I think is apropos to my situation and therefore my subject matter here.

There was a time, not so long ago, when I thought happiness could be derived through vocational success (i.e. more money.) Money would afford me the ability to have more toys, travel more often and more luxuriously, eat better food, drink better wine and generally buy more joyous experiences. However, as noted previously, I've actually been decreasing the amount of stuff that I own and increasing the amount that I'm doing with what I already own and I'm feeling happier every day.

So if happiness isn't about stuff and is about doing, then should I measure my success by the amount of money that I make? If no, they how should success be measured? Even Merriam-Webster includes "the attainment of wealth" in their definition. Continuing down the definitional path (last link to a dictionary for today, I promise) wealth is an "abundance of valuable material possessions or resources." The crucial word in this definition seems to be or and I think the the key to redefining success will be uncovering the resource(s) I will aspire to attain.

How do you define success?