success..

Whenever I hear this word, I always ask myself " What is my definition for success?". I find it sometimes so complicated and hard to define. And here's a fact, I get confused whenever I come up to the realization that I've been struggling so hard to achieve success and the bad thing is, I don't even know what success means to me. I am aiming for success and since I can't define it, I won't be able to know if I've already reached success or not. Sounds really odd, isn't it? I asked a few friends of mine about their opinion regarding this matter and here are their answers:

Friend#1: Success is Contentment.
Friend#2: Success is the accumulation of all the positive things that are happening in your life.
Friend#3: Success is when you're already rich and you can have anything you want.
Friend#4: Success is achieving your goal w/o cheating.

I was really amazed the moment I heard their answers. It's not because they have these good-to-hear- answers but because they know exactly what they are pursuing in their lives. They know exactly when to say that they've already reached success.

After a couple of days of thinking and constructing my own definition of success, I've finally made a few ones and I was surprised to realize that I do have lots of hidden thoughts and ideas in my mind. Yihee! Well.. eherm.. Success, for me, is when you have achieved your goals and dreams and you are not the only one who benefits on it. Instead, you can share it to your family and friends. You use it to bless other people. In addition, success is reaching something that even though it's not really your goal, you'd still feel very happy about it because you know in your heart that it is His goal for you. We sometimes think that success is a very big thing with very big representations- money, fame etc. What we need to understand is that success is not merely about all these material and earthly things. Well, they can somehow represent it but it won't really give you the true essence of success.

How about you? What is your definition for success?