If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.-- Rob Brezsny
The standard definition of success in America has been to live in a big house in the suburbs – or, now, in these cosmopolitan times, to live in a posh and architecturally clever urban loft with high ceilings, a brilliant view of the city’s skyline through picturesque windows, and amenities usually reserved for only the finest hotels; drive a luxury vehicle, possibly of Japanese, German or even Italian origin; have 2.5 children – with a doting and faithful spouse, of course; and earn a butt-kicking 6-figure salary at a top-performing Fortune 100 company. To some, anything less is preposterous, intolerable, and so unsophisticated.
Aren’t you glad it’s just “some?”
And, have you ever actually met anybody with half a kid?
(Have you ever met the person who grew up being the half kid?… Okay, that’s another “Thought…,.”)
In this day of a flattened and sluggish economy, success might still look like the standard definition for the “some” people. But for the majority of us people, it’s less of that and more of something else.
Perhaps for the rest of us, success looks like living in a home that, at a minimum, is clean, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Perhaps success is being able to look around your home and appreciate the things that are valuable to you. Maybe success is that you have decent and appropriate clothes for work AND leisure because you work hard and get to play in return, and you have enough good food to feed your family healthy and nutritious meals.
Perhaps success for you is watching your family grow and participate in the many elements that make life interesting and purposeful. Maybe success means involving your kids in an array of activities so they can experience diverse and mind-stretching opportunities, even when you have to drive all over town 6 days a week. And, at times, success may simply be driving a minivan – to accommodate your kids, their stuff, the dog, and their friends – on a full tank of gas.
Or maybe success may be as simple as managing your money well, leaving no bill behind, and paying for everything with cash. Boy, couldn’t America use some success in that manner. Then we’d all be living in lofts with partial kids.
Maybe success for you is that you have a job that pays which means that you can live with dignity and not be accused of wanting a handout or pity. Even if the job doesn’t pay much, success for you is that you can hold your own and contribute to the financial well-being of society. Success may even be as simple as walking into the bank this afternoon and telling the bankers to cash your itty-bitty check ‘cause you worked hard for every measly cent!
And, then, maybe success is, tonight, taking some of your earnings, sending the kids to their friend’s house, buying your drink of choice, preparing yourself a healthy and nutritious meal, kicking back in your clean, comfortable, and priced right home, and not having a care in the world about anybody else’s definition of success. Bang the loft with a city view, the Germans, and any number of kids, success is right where you are.
