How do you define success in life?
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For the first time in my life, this is the easiest question to answer.
When I hit puberty, I believed it was the amount of women I slept with over my lifetime.
As a young adult, I believed a life in the armed services was the foundation for success.
After leaving the military, I believed money, power, and influence were the keys to success.
Early 30’s I thought success would take the shape of a career in something I enjoyed doing every day.
It wasn’t until I was at absolute rock bottom with no distractions and no escape that I realized success was none of the above. People tie happiness with success and success to happiness while neither are sustainable. They are rollercoasters. You cannot have the high without descending into the low. Without the low, it’s almost impossible to develop your character and drive for something better. Ultimately, you cannot appreciate the high unless you are climbing out of the low… But they do not have to be extremes.
The key to success is finding what brings you peace of mind. Your contentment/satisfaction. Neither a high to fall from nor a low to crawl out of. It’s the balance between the two. And it is a balancing act.
If you can find the balance, you can still have highs and lows -they’re just not as extreme as before. You’re not falling off peaks into an abyss. You’re rolling off hills into valleys.
Once you understand the difference, you will experience the benefits and never want to go back.
