relevance

What Does Success Mean?

The other day I chanced upon Kipling’s If. The kind of find that comes when you are lazily flipping through an old journal. My younger self had copied the poem there, in a steadier hand.
That poem has travelled with me across the years.

It made me pause. Again. As it always does. It made me wonder: what are my own markers for success?
Now.
How have they shifted as new conversations arrive at my shore, every day? As new books, ideas, and lived moments at work reshape me? Or have they?
I reached for a pad and pencil.

So, what is success?

Three things.

Success is to reinvent. To see the changes around us and not be afraid. To bend, to stretch, to become.
Not to chase every trend. But to stay alive, awake, in touch with the times. To move with them, yet remain yourself.

Success is to believe that better is possible. Better is not more. Not louder. Not heavier.
Better is lighter.
Cleaner.
Full of meaning. It asks for courage.
It is nourished by curiosity. And thrives on humility. Every day offers the chance to try again. To make one corner of life, work, family, self a little better than before.

Success is to give. And then give again. Not because you have plenty left over. But because giving itself makes you full. It is the circle of life made visible. To give is to know you are alive. To give is to know you are enough.

That to me, is success. Now.
Reinvention.
Belief in better.
The grace of giving.

Yours?