success

Achieving goals is what success is all about. The marksman who has failed to hit the 'bullseye' on the target may feel a sense of failure. He may, however, consider himself not to have been a complete failure if he was able to get the shot on the scoring card. Life in general is never as well defined as the rings on the marksman's scorecard.

For me life's successes have been like the journey of an ancient mariner before the age of sophisticated electronic navigational systems and onboard powered vessels. Navigation depended on variable factors beyond the control of these mariners. The goal was to reach a given port on a distant shore. The mariner was assured of his progress by checking periodically on the position of celestial 'objects'. 

Success for me is more like the progress tracking of the mariner than the shot of the marksman. A series of 'checkpoints' will mark success or progress in the journey. As the seaman checks the heavens to chart his progress, the land traveler consults his map looking for 'landmarks' to confirm success in his travel.

It is the greater society and our culture that helps us 'map' our life's Journey. I was successful in completing elementary school. I then moved on to high-school and successfully completed that course. If the entire journey through life was like these school years success would indeed be as simple as the marksman's scorecard or the land traveler's journey. For me it seemed like life beyond this point became more like the mariners journey; a complex charting of a course across a 'trackless' ocean, heading to a distant port. Success would be more about the journey rather than the destination.

Success is now about 'keeping the ship afloat'. It's about keeping healthy. Setting and maintaining nutritional and physical fitness goals. It is also about staying 'connected' keeping an appropriate level of 'social intercourse'. It is about contributing to society by doing ones part as an active law-abiding member of the community in which resides.

Success is also about Family. Values are defined as "a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life".  These are usually learned and passed on through families. For me, these values have not changed too much thus far. I will consider my life a great success at this time and at any other stage if I can teach these values to a fellow traveler on life's journey.