8.31.2010

A meditation on success

I did a (very informal) survey amongst my friends: how do you measure success?

Most answers had to do with happiness, or money, or some combination of the two. The first response was "does it make God happy?" It makes me think about my priorities.

I have not been successful in that the goal has been eluding me. I go out support raising, making those 5-10 call a day. I'm still not getting those appointments, or if I am, I'm not getting the yeses I need to stay afloat.

Then, in my job search, success eludes me there as well. I've had 3 or 4 job interviews in the past month, with little to no result. I did get a one-off bookkeeping job, but not an hour after I reviewed the material and began my planning, my client called me and told me he was going to give the job to someone else.

I keep thinking success is the result. And, in a way it is. While I have a retail position at Anthropologie, I still don't have the shifts I need to stay afloat. That part time bookkeeping job is still not there. I have not been successful.

So maybe the question is not one of success, but one of doing what I am supposed to do. Maybe being successful in that respect - getting the job, or the finances - is only part of what I need to understand right now. While I think that success is important, it's what we do with it that counts. Or failure for that matter. Do we honor God?

That's just hard to remember sometimes.