BEING AWESOME IS SUCCESS

 

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"Success comes in a lot of ways, but it doesn't come with money and it doesn't come with fame. It comes from having a meaning in your life, doing what you love and being passionate about what you do. That's having a life of success. When you have the ability to do what you love, love what you do and have the ability to impact people. That's having a life of success. That's what having a life of meaning is." ---- Tim Tebow

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Often we associate success with big bank accounts, huge mansions, flashy and expensive cars, impressive roll of connections, heaps of titles to a name, being on the society pages of the daily papers, the namedropping of famous names-celebrities-personalities, and all the curious trappings of wealth ---- all spell m-o-n-e-y and f-a-m-e. That's been fed into our brains by the media, by our schools, by our friends and peers, even by our parents. Everything that we try to do is measured against that list. If we don't make it on that list, we are immediately labeled 'failed'.
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Oh those things are not bad in itself; they also have their uses. What is sad is that some make them the only measure of success. That's being short-sighted. It's not seeing the whole of life and the people in it as a huge landscape and panorama of diversity of brilliance and talent,... and awesomeness.
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Life is awesome. Surely there are so many ways we can live that awesomeness and be successful at it. There is and can be no one label or tag for success. Anyone who lends his or her talent or gift to better other lives.........  or anyone who displays with authentic wisdom and clarity the magnificence of our God...........  or any effort, big or small, which gives life its awesome meaning is  ----  success!! That, for the record, tops anything and everything on my list.
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God bless you! Be awesome.
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Tidbit:
(Tim Tebow, whose birthplace is Makati City, Philippines, is an American football quarterback for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). Is known for sharing his Christian faith with fans and in clinics, hospitals, market places, schools, and orphanages.)

THE DIFFERENCE LIES IN THE CHOICES WE MAKE

We all get the same stuff in life. I'm referring to those things which make us happy, cry, angry, love, lose, succeed, bitter, foolish, brilliant, or just downright stupid. Because you and I are the same. You may not fancy the green bitter gourd I eat but you have your own idiosyncrasies about food like a peanut butter and mustard sandwich. I like walking boots anywhere I go and you like dark leather jackets in rain or sunny weather. I like soft soothing music to calm my hassled nerves at night while you like the loud ear-screeching sounds of an electric guitar to wake you up mornings. I guess we can put up with all that because we know that we're so much different with each other as we are so much the same. 

But in things which matter in the course of trying to live a life the best we can, it would be wise to pay attention to certain things. We all aim for happiness and success. But to get there in the best possible time and in top form we must learn what or where we should put our emphasis or attention. Why? It’s because so many things could and would encroach on our territory thereby taking us off the track or derailing us from our goal. But we can do something about that. 

If our emphasis is on ...

...hard work, responsibility, determination, excellence, persistence, consistency, accountability, knowledge, self-confidence, respect, hope, faith, the willingness to learn, the ability to bounce back from a disappointment or failure, and the passion and love for doing what is right --we will get there no matter the road we take or challenges we face. If we put in our best effort into our goals, the universe can do no other but grant our heart's desires.

On the other hand, if we engage in ....

--lackadaisical effort, are content with mediocrity, are lazy, can't leave our comfort zones, can't make commitments, resent authority, prone to moods of procrastination, evade responsibility, and would opt for the shorter easier (yet not always the smarter) way to do things--we won't get there, that's certain. We'll simply end up as miserable as we started - Perhaps twice as miserable. To this the universe will simply say to us -- 'Buddy, you've got a problem.'

Both kinds of activity use up the same hours, days, weeks, years and energy put into it. What would make the huge difference is on deciding which road we would choose to travel -- the road to joy or the road to misery. The choice is solely ours to make.

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." ---- Carlos Castaneda