Finding a New Meaning of SUCCESS
We all spend a great deal of time thinking about success. What does it mean? How do we achieve it? Is it really measurable?
In today's society we are often asked to define success in material terms--the house, car, career, the vacations.
Seeing success that way makes achieving success a competitive sport where you cannot win no matter how well you do in those areas. Someone will always have more than you. Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests we define success in a different way in the poem below:
"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded."
As we live in a fast paced, competitive, materialistic world may we find peace in Mr. Emerson's words.
G. Richard Jackson, M.P.A. C.S.A.
Executive Director, Riverside Center for Excellence in Aging & Lifelong Health
