Independent of what motivates you, how you think about money, whether you tend to capitalize on your strengths or protect your weak spots… how will you ultimately grade yourself on overall career success? Will it be based on how long you stayed in the game? The level of influence or recognition you achieved? What about the quality and durability of your relationships? Personally meaningful and satisfying accomplishments? Financial security? Respect?
While enjoying my morning coffee, I generally read the obituaries. These concise profiles of the recently deceased interest me for a number of reasons (truly, what better way to begin the day than by not seeing your own name?) and I’m hardly the first to appreciate them as a bona fide literary form. It seems as if there’s a bit of competition going on from beyond the grave, too. Numbers of children, grandchildren and surviving spouses offer a snapshot of how the subjects surrounded themselves with others, assuring the reader that they were seldom, if ever, lonely. Details of education, military or community service, career achievements and leisure pursuits help us recognize a life lived to its fullest — or one cut tragically short. And unless it’s just me, I think there’s also a reflection, a natural process of self-comparison that goes on when we read them. We wonder or speculate what our own obituaries might look like and how our own descriptions will measure up…or not.
To read the full, original article click on this link: How Do You Define Success, Really? | BNET
Author: Mark Jaffe
