Pathway to Success

Tell me something, when you hear the word "Success" what is it that comes to mind? What do you think of? Do you think of millions of dollars sitting in your bank account? Maybe you think of a mansion or a private island? Maybe you think of someone rich and famous? Those are the kinds of things that I used to think when I would hear that word...

I would look at my friends and family, the ones with the houses, the ones that are married with children. The ones that look like they actually achieved something with their lives. I would hear that word and think of them and question myself. I would lie in bed until well past midnight and just wonder, "Why can't I be as successful as them? What am I doing wrong?" I found my answer.

It's funny because I never found my answer when I was lying there and thinking about it for countless nights, instead, I found it while I was in the middle of shampooing my hair! The answer was that they aren't more successful than me and I wasn't doing anything wrong. I know, you're wondering how that's possible... How is it possible that they aren't more successful than me when they are the ones traveling the world, married, owning cars, houses, and businesses, making names for themselves, making chunks of money left and right. I'll tell you how that is possible...

It's possible because I have my own success that they don't have. Sure, they are successful in ways that I would like to be, but I'm equally as successful except my success is in different areas of my life. I'm successful because I followed my dream and became an author, I may not be a 'NY Times Best Seller' (yet), but I am an author nonetheless and one day I will get to that 'Best Seller' list. How else am I successful? I have a beautiful daughter. I envy my siblings and all of their accomplishments, but I am the only one with a child. I'm a successful mom, how? Because my daughter is an amazing human being. They don't have that, but I'm lucky enough to.

Many of my friends and both of my siblings are married, I almost was, but that's another story for a different day. I get jealous because they have a successful love life while mine just sucks. That's okay though because even though I haven't found the love of my life yet, I'm successful because I have love IN my life. I have loving family members and friends who are like family that love me.

The next time that you look at your life and I mean REALLY look at your life, I want you to see that no matter where you are in life, you ARE successful. You may not be rich and famous, but you're alive. You've achieved some sort of success in one way or another whether that be completing school, accepting a new job (heck having any kind of job is successful), checking items off of your To Do list, not burning food, all of that makes you successful. You've done SOMETHING, props to you!! Being unsuccessful, in my opinion, is when you stop, when you give up, raise the white flag in surrender and call it quits. THAT is when you become unsuccessful. Moving forward, doing something to make yourself better, waking up every single day and trying to better your life, all of that makes you successful.

Everyone has their own success, it comes at different times in life and in different forms. Just because you don't have a huge amount of money, a million dollar house or a private island doesn't mean that you're unsuccessful. You do things that make you successful every single day, don't forget that.