{"id":247,"date":"2011-06-27T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/06\/success\/"},"modified":"2011-06-27T19:22:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-27T19:22:00","slug":"success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/06\/success.html","title":{"rendered":"Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Success is having enough and having the wisdom to recognize it; success is doing what you\u2019re called to do while you do what you have to do.<\/i><\/p>\n

Last Friday author and teacher Thorn Coyle had a blog post on redefining success<\/a>. She led with a quote from poet Maya Angelou, who said \u201csuccess is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.\u201d Thorn\u2019s post was an attempt to draw people away from the mainstream view of success as more more more and the attitude that you can \u2013 and should \u2013 do \/ be \/ have anything if you just work hard enough.<\/p>\n

The many comments<\/a> (24 as I write this) expressed a variety of thoughts, but running through many of them was the frustration of trying to feel successful with love and faith and service while dealing with financial, physical, or other material difficulties.<\/p>\n

There are two commonly held definitions of success in the wider Western culture. Neither of them are entirely helpful to most of us most of the time.<\/p>\n

The first is the traditional materialistic definition of success and the route to get there: work hard, make a lot of money, enjoy a luxurious lifestyle of huge houses, fast cars and expensive hobbies. I doubt I have to tell any readers of this blog the problems with that definition. The satisfaction of things is a temporary satisfaction; or, as I heard somewhere, the gap between \u201cmore\u201d and \u201cenough\u201d never closes. On top of that there are moral issues with consuming huge and disproportionate amounts of limited resources.<\/p>\n

However, this does not mean material success is unimportant. Try to feel loving and compassionate when you can\u2019t pay the mortgage or rent, when your car is broken and you don\u2019t have a way to get to work, or when your child is sick and you don\u2019t have insurance. It\u2019s not impossible, but it\u2019s pretty damned hard.<\/p>\n

Success is having enough and having the wisdom to recognize it; success is doing what you\u2019re called to do while you do what you have to do.<\/i><\/p>\n

The second commonly held definition of success has become popular since the 1960s or so: do what makes you happy, express your creativity, follow your bliss. The problem arises when we confuse our lifelong satisfaction with our short-term wants. All acts of love and pleasure may be the rituals of the Goddess, but they aren\u2019t a strong enough foundation on which to build a life. Or, in the words of Isaac Bonewits<\/a>, \u201cdo as thou wilt, not do as thou whim.\u201d <\/p>\n

Adopting this definition of success sets us up for failure when the realities of life intrude on our dreams. Being successful doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have to deal with difficulties or do things we\u2019d rather not do. \u201cChop wood, carry water\u201d applies to more than just Buddhists.<\/p>\n

And speaking of failure, the fact that we don\u2019t currently meet our definition of success doesn\u2019t mean we have failed. It simply means we\u2019re not there yet. You don\u2019t have to be successful today, or tomorrow, or next week. If you have a goal and a plan and you\u2019re making good progress over time then you\u2019re doing OK. The only thing worse than not recognizing success is defining success so low and so vague that you stop working to make things better for yourself and for others. <\/p>\n

Success is having enough and having the wisdom to recognize it; success is doing what you\u2019re called to do while you do what you have to do.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving enough\u201d means doing the things that are necessary to earn enough. But very few of us are able to earn a living by painting or singing or writing or by doing any of the many things that make us feel truly successful \u2013 the things we\u2019re called to do.<\/p>\n

To use a classic example, consider acting. A very few lucky folks are identified as \u201ctalented\u201d at a very early age and are turned into stars (though given that group\u2019s crash and burn rate I\u2019m not sure how lucky they really are). Everyone else has to make it on their own \u2013 they have to earn their living while pursuing their dreams. Maybe they move to Hollywood and wait tables or tend bar while going to auditions. Or maybe they stay home, work a professional job and do community theater in the evenings. Both of those options are routes to success, albeit different kinds of success. But what the people exercising both these options aren\u2019t<\/i> doing is waiting on things to be \u201cjust right\u201d before starting \u2013 they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re called to do while they\u2019re doing what they have to do.<\/p>\n

What is it that you\u2019re called to do? What is not your whim or your fancy but your true will? What is your bliss? Start doing it today! You\u2019ll still have to chop wood and carry water, but you\u2019ll be one step closer to success as you see it. <\/p>\n

Success is having enough and having the wisdom to recognize it; success is doing what you\u2019re called to do while you do what you have to do.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Success is having enough and having the wisdom to recognize it; success is doing what you\u2019re called to do while you do what you have to do. Last Friday author and teacher Thorn Coyle had a blog post on redefining success. 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