Success -it's all in the way you measure it

I have often wondered what it is that ensures the success of the few and the lack of success for the majority. Today while contemplating this I am driven to a new question – what is success and why do we define our success by how we are perceived by others. Society appears to hail those who have made their fortunes as heroes or those who have developed new and innovative technologies or gain applause in the arts or pump out of the number of speakers to be found in cars and homes around the world. But what if success was measured differently, what if we looked at values and measured our success by values and not the material aspects of this world, what then. Would we see a world where we had a greater regard for mothers and fathers who reared and cared for their children encouraging mutual respect and dignity. Would we see a wolrd where altruism is king not cash, where conversation and discussion replaced war and atrocities, where participation and involvement resulted in better services and where empowerment resulted in more civic minded people. As a parent we push our children to strive for success, to be the best they can or what we perceive they can regardless of their happiness, just because you are good at something does not mean you enjoy doing it. But as with all things we need to have balance, we do need successful people so that we can dream our dreams and build aspirations. Instead of always looking for the most successful in business, sports and media maybe it’s time we looked in our own locality to see the local heroes who are successful every day; the parent who engages with their children through play, the volunteer who demonstrates altruism but never talks about it, the employee who engages with their colleagues to make their day that bit better, the child that cares about the birds to ensure they have enough to eat when it’s snowing. Every day, I ask myself how I will measure my success today and everyday it’s different. Most days I measure it through my interaction with people and whether I achieved my objective of making someone’s day better as a result of a conversation with me. How will you measure yours?