Success. We've all read the books and heard the talks and secretly wondered if we have what it takes to become a billionaire. We've wished and dreamed about big houses and nice cars because when we think of success, the first thing we think about is money. People enter the lottery time after time because if they could just have that money, all of their problems would go away and they would live a happy and successful life. If only those "get rich quick" campaigns worked for everybody and we could all be rich and happy and successful. In the our culture, money=happy=success and that's all there is to it.
Well, I think that's wrong.
Success to me doesn't really have anything to do with money. It does, however, have everything to do with PURPOSE. Way back when America was first being discovered, there was a man named John Calvin. Long story short, he was the founder of Calvinism and one of the main beliefs of the Calvinists was that every man had a God-given purpose. The idea was that you'd discover your purpose and work hard toward pursuing and fulfilling whatever that purpose may be. I don't know much about Calvinism and I don't have strong opinions about all of that, but I do know that I agree with the basic idea of working hard to fulfill your God-given purpose or, in other words, to succeed. I believe that every person has been created to be successful. I also believe that success means different things for each person because every person has a different "God-given" purpose.
I was watching a DVD called "Happy" and it was following the lives of those who our culture would seem "unsuccessful" - those expected to be found unhappy. It turned out that these people were just fine and actually very happy. I think that's because they had found their passion and their purpose and they are chasing after it with all that they are.
I don't know, guys. I'm taking a personal wellness class that's very success centered and everybody is asking me what I want to do with my life and so I've been thinking alot about what it means to be successful. It's all a mess of thoughts in my head but I've decided that
1. We all have a purpose. We've all been created for a reason!
2. Success means finding your passion or purpose and DOING IT. Success means hard work. It's not going to be handed to you.
3. Once you've found your purpose and are following it and doing all you can to reach it, you'll find a happiness or a joy that no amount of money or cars or square feet will give you.
That's all I've got so far :)
Love, Christie
