What is Success? The Path and Process

What is success? I believe I know what it is and how to get there but success occurs on many levels. Success is the realization of a goal or dream. Success can sometimes travel in accord with financial reward but many times success is made of small daily achievements.

Each night we read to my son and on the days when I read to him we start or end our conversation with life topics like: thinking big, or the keys to success, or making the choice to be positive, and understanding what it means to live a beautiful life. This week, he and I have been talking about success. It is interesting that although I am teaching him what I know, I am also learning through explaining the process. It is like they say: to truly understand something, explain those concepts to a small child and bring him or her to understand.

During our talks I have tried to break down success into a path. We have already talked about goals and dreams, but these conversations are more about putting the effort towards reaching big goals and thinking long term.

My interpretation of success is that it is a multistage path. The first stage is “The Road to Success.” The next is “Success.” Then, you enter the next path of “Sustaining Success,” and finally the stage which parallels the completion of life: “Legacy.”

The path to success is the development of the right habits. I heard a wealthy entrepreneur and author say that success is a habit. He is absolutely correct. The habits are success are simply the development and daily implementation of health habits. The habits of success include the people you choose to be around. A habit of success is having a healthy diet (which can include a few cookies with milk, skittles once in a while, diluted lemonade, and a chocolate bar and ice cream here and there!!). A habit of success is getting at least a small amount of exercise every day. You don’t have to be a power-lifter or train like a boxing champion to have a healthy lifestyle. Go for a walk, get some house work done, or run errands. One aspect of exercise we forget is to remember to exercise your mind. Daydream, plan, observe some positive progress you’ve made, and most important, choose to infuse your mind with all things positive.

The road to success includes many other facets like continual learning, gaining experiences, and putting yourself out there to begin building relationships. And similar to the sport of boxing, which I always dip into the cookie jar of analogies, the road to success entails a great deal of road work, which in boxing would be the endless miles of running to gain endurance.

Then one day you’ve reached your goal; you’ve done it. There is the feeling of accomplishment and it is a time of celebration. I began to think that this is merely a “moment” of success but not the path of success. The path of success is an ongoing adventure. When seen from this perspective and put into daily practice, the road to success is simply life itself. Life equals success, and/or success equals life. Once you are on that road, the two are almost inseparable. The habit of success applies consistently to your life eventually becomes life itself.

Success! So what’s next? After the party, or for some like me that like a quiet walk to review and reflect, it is time to adjust the method of travel. We now move into the phase of sustaining success. This step has its own set of challenges that one might not perceive. Maybe you’ve achieved a bit of financial wealth, influence, and esteem. Like champion boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler once remarked: “it’s tough getting up to train when you’re sleeping on silk sheets.” I can imagine this to be true as I lay on my squeaky mattress, but with this knowledge it has provided the opportunity to prepare for it.

To sustain success means a shift in mindset. If the road to success was the drive towards a specific destination, sustaining success is like becoming a freight train. I envision becoming a freight train with three locomotives pulling in the front and three locomotives pushing from the back. Gaining more success means hauling more weight, wielding more power, and bearing increased responsibilities. Those locomotives need to move that train on the track but even more critical, those back locomotives are instrumental instrumental in the braking system to bring that massive load to a stop to avoid hazards.

Each new station is a goal and each goals means an increase in freight. To sustain success it is important to find new ways to fuel the heavy loads. New habits of success need to be formed.

Since I am on the logistics analogy, I will expand to make it interesting.

The train stations are each new goal that is achieved. So, you might ask, what’s next? Then you build a port and massive ships to carry more and more cargo across the seas. Now your success is gaining enormous reach and you’re trading a diversity of information that bridges social and cultural norms.

Obviously, I have not reached levels like this, but maybe I have. Maybe I have reached the level of insight to envision the path prior to creating the value necessary to reap the financial rewards. I imagine living a life illustrated through the metaphor of those massive ships. I imagine being in the middle of the vastness of the ocean with a select crew. I imagine there would be time to look out towards an endless horizon and reflect on the truth of life. I image that looking out to see the simple contrast of the sky and sea, with only the horizon line acting as a mediator, is to look within your own mind with a unique purity.

To sustain success means to avoid the storms and shallow bodies of water. Sustaining success is following the trusted maps that have guided centuries of commerce. There are a set of habits for the success road, There are a set of habits for pulling the freight on the established tracks, and there are a set of habits to safely navigate the unforgiving seas.

The art of sustaining leads to legacy. “Dad, what’s legacy?” My son asked. “Legacy is the positive things that live on when you are no longer here on earth.” My son looked puzzled for a moment. I explained further. “Remember the statue of Tony Gwynn at the ballpark?”
“oh yes.” He replied.
“well, Tony Gwynn was a great ball player and they built a statue to always remember him. That was his legacy to the sport of baseball. Many people still remember the great things he did in the sport.”
My son’s eyes lit up and could see he understood.

I guess legacy doesn’t need to be explained in detail; you either have it or you don’t. I have thought a great deal about legacy and what it means to me and it’s importance. What if my life were to end today? Have I left a true legacy? I concluded that the notion of legacy was only a choice of thought while I am still living. It really doesn’t matter to think about it because it would be out of my control. I could be disappointed because I would feel like I didn’t do enough to have a positive impact on the world. Is that true? I believe I have had a tremendous positive impact on the world; my world. I love my life and I love my story. From the day I was born I was given the opportunity to take the most beautiful path. My life is an adventure that began humbly and with great potential, but was met with a spiral down the low valleys, only to rise again and reach something more than I imagined. I’m not on the Forbes list and have the struggles that many Americans have today, but I love how the story has been tailored for me regardless if I am remembered in a positive way beyond my family.

I just endeavor to keep moving forward everyday, even if that means taking the smallest steps. Maybe success is having the ability to gain the understanding of a child and instilling that belief in them. Success is watching their eyes light up when they really believe that they can be something great. Success is saying goodnight, walking out of the room, and peaking back in the door to seeing that kid looking towards the ceiling but you know he’s really looking towards the stars.