Success is in the Eye of the Believer

The word success is so often associated with finances, how much money you make and how many cars you have in your garage.  We look at people who we deem to be successful because of what they own and determine that for us to succeed we must make more money.  Granted, if your idea of success is to have x number of dollars in the bank or to drive a Rolls Royce, more power to you.  But sometimes, those people you look at with a wishful eye, aren't necessarily successful, they've just made a lot of money.  

Real success isn't based on money.  Real success is about the path you have chosen in life and what you are doing to arrive at the place where you can be confident that you have realized your goal. Too often we set unrealistic goals for ourselves and then grow weary when we don't reach them when we think we should.  Once we begin growing weary, we think our goals have become unreachable and we simply give up.

Successful people have these things in common: 1) They have a dream.  They know what they want out of life and where they want to end up.  They know what they want to accomplish. 2) They turn their dream into a vision. Successful people keep their dreams alive by continuously seeing them in their mind.  God told Habakkuk to write the vision and make it plain so that others could see it and run with it.  These people keep their vision ever before them so that they remain focused on where they are going.  3) They set goals along the way to the destination.  Without small accomplishments along the way, the dream seems farther away than it should.  The more you reach the lesser goals, the easier it is to continue pushing toward your dream. 4) They don't allow the opinions of others to sway their determination.  Their mind is made up and not subject to what other people think they should do.

No one can decide whether you are successful but you.  Only you know what is deep down on the inside, the dreams, and desires.  Only you can determine what you want to accomplish in life.  Nobody can do that for you.  People can help you reach your goals but they cannot determine your vision or level of success.  "But how will I know if I'm successful?"  When you have accomplished your goals; when you know that you are doing exactly what you were meant to do; when you are seeing your vision come to pass; then you will know that you have succeeded.   Now, if you don't believe in yourself or your ability to succeed, you won't make it.  It doesn't matter how much everyone else believes in you.  You have to believe in yourself.  You must see yourself as successful already.  You have to know that you have what it takes inside of you.  You can't be wishy-washy throughout the process of fulfilling your vision.