Life's Successes!

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure"

- Bill Cosby

Success. We live in a world obsessed with success. It's something that everyone in life is aiming for. Whatever we do, wherever we plan to go, we measure everything we do by our success. Banks measure profits, Hospitals measure patient rates, Schools measure results. We're always looking for success. Ever heard someone measure how well something went by how badly it failed? No. Success is what counts.

In my job, I'm constantly looking at data and numbers to see how much success is being had. It's all about success. After all that is what helps identify the good from the bad, the top from the bottom.  Time limits, profits, targets, numbers, it's all about success. Today, as I looked at my screen I started to think about how many other people were in the same place as me, doing a job so focussed on making data a success we forget sometimes about the other successes that are taking place around us.

But how do we decide what success really is? Is it academic? Based on grades? Is it based on money? Profits?

In life there are lots of different times when we experience success and really they are nothing to do with either of these things. As I sat at my computer to work on 'successes' I realised that true success in  life is really about more than just education and money. Maybe its a music grading? Overcoming a fear? Doing something for the first time? Achievement in sport? Quitting smoking. It's all about achieving goals!

I love the story of Alan Sugar. Someone who left school with no qualifications, no real academic success, in most people's eyes, a failure. Yet through setting goals and following his ideas, he now has one of the most successful businesses in Britain. His success may, on the outside, seem to be measured by the amount of money he makes, however the real success story is how Alan Sugar was able to defy all the odds to turn his life around. That is the true success.

Life is filled with moments where we go through many different successes, times when we do things to improve our lives. Surely that has got to be the ultimate success no matter what!

And so I end with this thought.

Today life will bring many things your way. You will probably face new challenges and do things that you didn't expect (see previous blog for more on that!). It is easy to, all too often, focus on the failures or the things that didn't go right today.

But stop, pause, and think about what went well today. What were those moments today that were good? That were a success? Maybe you defied the odds and made something work which you never thought you would? Maybe you overcame something? Maybe you even turned your life around?

Success is all around us. Our lives are filled with successful moments and yet, all to often, we focus on the things that didn't go as we had planned. Thankfully our failures in life are not recorded on a chart or graph, nor are they highlighted in red. Our failures are in the past, and no one will really remember them in the future. But success lasts far longer. If you focus on those successful moments in life, then you see life in a whole new way.

Success is all around, the question is can you see it?

Bywyd sydd yn byw! - Just living life!

RM