Success!

Let me inspire you to succeed! But how is it measured? By your job title? By your bank account balance? I think not!

Success:  To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded! 

- published 11/30/1905 in the Lincoln (Kansas) Sentinel - an adaptation of this is often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, though nothing like it has been found in his writings.

To me success is a life of kindness to others... achieving a new level of peace. What we have or what we do compares sadly against how we make people feel. (Maya Angelou)

I have suffered many failures in my life... but I try to always remember this: the road to success is paved with failure. I know I am on the right track. If I keep on going there is no telling where I will end up! But it is in the moving that I succeed! It is in the moving that I grow and bloom and become. Some days I find it hard to move -- that is ok! I can rest, rejuvenate, and then get going again. My spirit carries me to places not of this world. To places where there is nothing but peace, solitude, silence. If I can dwell there for seconds or minutes at a time I can return back to this world with good things to share, with a kinder soul.

Measure success by what you give to others... nothing more... nothing less!