What's a successful life?

[merveilles]

If you were 80 years old, and looked back on your life, would you be happy with it? What would you say is a successful life? What are you supposed to do with your life anyway?

[Cran]

Supposed to do?

That is up to each individual. There is no set definition for succes. You can see that if you go through all the different goals people have. But ultimately, I define success in life by experiencing happiness, not shortlived, but deep satisfaction at the things set in motion and lived through.

[mindset]

I can probably say that success in life does not rely on achievements alone but how much you have touched the life of people you have encountered throughout the years. Material and monetary assets will vanish overtime but the friendship and love that you have invested to those you loved and cherished can never be forgotten even if your life has ended. Your legacy will always live on... now that's a successful life! I hope that when I'd look back years from now, that's what I'd be able to tell myself.

[Leondegrance]

Originally Posted by merveilles

What would you say is a successful life? What are you supposed to do with your life anyway?

Be one with nature.

[Elrond]

Originally Posted by mindset

I can probably say that success in life does not rely on achievements alone but how much you have touched the life of people you have encountered throughout the years. Material and monetary assets will vanish overtime but the friendship and love that you have invested to those you loved and cherished can never be forgotten even if your life has ended. Your legacy will always live on... now that's a successful life! I hope that when I'd look back years from now, that's what I'd be able to tell myself.

Will you care if people remember you when you're dead though (since you're dead)?

[ZephyrusX]

Originally Posted by Mer

If you were 80 years old, and looked back on your life, would you be happy with it? What would you say is a successful life? What are you supposed to do with your life anyway?

I think it depends on how limited your perspective is. I'm very appreciative of the fact that I have had the opportunity to experience 'the human condition' and I love the fact that I can feel emotion, touch, hear, see, smell, taste and manipulate my environment to some degree. I love having the opportunity to learn and meet other people as they always expand my perception on things. I love laying in the warm sun and doing absolutely nothing. I love my furry, little cat. I am appreciative that I have a relatively privileged life in terms of social security and class.

It is hard to 'fail at life' when you are grateful for what you have.

[Mounds]

Originally Posted by merveilles

If you were 80 years old, and looked back on your life, would you be happy with it? What would you say is a successful life? What are you supposed to do with your life anyway?

Kids and an estate to pass on to them

[catalyst]

Having lived your life as a master, and not a slave.

[merveilles]

Originally Posted by ZephyrusX

I'm very appreciative of the fact that I have had the opportunity to experience 'the human condition' and I love the fact that I can feel emotion, touch, hear, see, smell, taste and manipulate my environment to some degree. I love having the opportunity to learn and meet other people as they always expand my perception on things. I love laying in the warm sun and doing absolutely nothing.

That's kind of how I feel... I'm only 20, and who knows how I'll feel 10 years from now.. But right now, I'd be happy to just have enough money to get by, live for the moment, appreciate the people I meet and the environment I'm currently living in... That's not ALL I want to do, but I could still be happy with a life like that. It freaks my family out. They worry I'm going to waste my life, and they want me to go to college so I can get a good job.. but none of that interests me.. I want to keep going with what I want to do, but then I worry if what if 20 years from now I realize they were right and I end up regretting "wasting" so much time?

[ellie]

Successful to me is achieving a lot of the things I set out to do. So I feel pretty successful

[ZephyrusX]

Originally Posted by merveilles

That's kind of how I feel... I'm only 20, and who knows how I'll feel 10 years from now.. But right now, I'd be happy to just have enough money to get by, live for the moment, appreciate the people I meet and the environment I'm currently living in... That's not ALL I want to do, but I could still be happy with a life like that. It freaks my family out. They worry I'm going to waste my life, and they want me to go to college so I can get a good job.. but none of that interests me.. I want to keep going with what I want to do, but then I worry if what if 20 years from now I realize they were right and I end up regretting "wasting" so much time?

I think one can easily wrap his/her genuine interests into his/her job. Also keep in mind that a lot of people simply do not keep the same job their entire life. One career choice (or university degree choice) may inform what you do next, but I generally think that there is more opportunity out there that people realize. You may end up some where 'wildly' exciting and not even anticipate it. The key is to be creative and to build networks.

I've been told by others that I am wasting my time with the type of degrees that I get (I take them because I genuinely like the subject field). But this strikes me as a lack of perception and imagination as I'm sure I could actually get a comfortable job and still be happy with what I am doing.

You don't even have to go the university route if you don't want to. I've met plenty of people who were successful with small businesses even though they had no post-secondary education. This is just the choice that I made.

[Entelechy]

Originally Posted by merveilles

If you were 80 years old, and looked back on your life, would you be happy with it? What would you say is a successful life? What are you supposed to do with your life anyway?

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.

[Bizarre Jester]

A successful life is an opinion and a perspective. To me having a successful life is feeling abundant every day and having more then enough money and friends. It is also having control over how I live my life.

[ErnieD]

Anyone else appreciate the irony of Merveilles having the answer to the question right in the post?

[Ceoarob]

For me, the most successful life that I could ever have is one that is of my own design.

I treat it like a house and I customize it completely to my specifications and EXACTLY how I want.

[gingernpepsi]

I think all we can do is enjoy it, because the chance stands that it could be your last. Live life with no regrets, and discover the real you

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Mulla Nasrudin.

[larkok]

Originally Posted by Bizarre Jester

A successful life is an opinion and a perspective. To me having a successful life is feeling abundant every day and having more then enough money and friends. It is also having control over how I live my life.

This is it. I feel the same way. Success is a subjective word and it's up to you to define what it means.

I think there is more joy to be found with intangibles rather than material possessions. Touching the heart of a stranger resonates much more strongly than simply buying something that you can tout as an "achievement".

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by ZephyrusX

I think it depends on how limited your perspective is. I'm very appreciative of the fact that I have had the opportunity to experience 'the human condition' and I love the fact that I can feel emotion, touch, hear, see, smell, taste and manipulate my environment to some degree. I love having the opportunity to learn and meet other people as they always expand my perception on things. I love laying in the warm sun and doing absolutely nothing. I love my furry, little cat. I am appreciative that I have a relatively privileged life in terms of social security and class.

It is hard to 'fail at life' when you are grateful for what you have.

Well said.

[Bricona]

I have a friend who use to work the graveyard shift at a hotel. He would wake up every evening, go to work, and once morning came, he would fall asleep. His life was sleep and work. His job controlled him.

I never want to be that way. Owned by something other than myself. I know that relationships, family, and religion is all sacrifice, but I only want to sacrifice for the things that I want to. My relationship is sacrifice but I love being with my girlfriend.

When I'm 80 and I look back on my life, I'm going to remember drinking beers on Fridays, the mornings wrapped around my girlfriend, and going to Vegas and getting chewed out by a feminist.

I'm going to remember the good times.

[Whiplash]

To me, a successful life is one where you have had a positive impact on people around you. This could be as intimate as your spouse and kids or as global as the whole word (celbs, political leaders,etc.).

[mikej]

a successful life is having truly learned to love yourself and other people.

[Kurtzilla]

A successful life is what you make of it... Remember, someday your life will flash in front of you. Make sure it's Worth Watching!!!

[Sue_B]

As others have said, we each define success differently as we each have different values. I remember hearing Anthony Robbins tell a story about two guys in the audience. (I may have the details wrong but you'll get the gist...) One guy made $1.2 million dollars, had a beautiful wife and family, 6% body fat etc yet he didn't feel successful yet. He'd feel successful if he was making $2 million dollars, had 5% body fat etc.

Another guy was bouncing in his seat he was so excited and wante to answer the question. Tony asked this guy if he was successful and the fellow said yes. Tony asked him how he knew he was successful. The guy said every morning he woke up and wasn't 6 ft under - he was a success!

Gay Hendricks wrote this amazing book called Five Wishes. He was at a party and got into a deep conversation with a fellow about how, when he was an old man about to die, he'd know if he'd been successful. It's basically a guide to getting at what those answers are now so you can start living them.

I think it comes down to having no regrets at that time. Being at peace. (But that's just me...

[Mounds]

I pondered this quite a bit over the last few days and in all honesty, I don't have an answer yet.
If I take a look back right now, I'm quite pleased with what I've done over the past five years. Plenty of confidence building, letting go of some past issues, becoming comfortable in my own skin again... In that respect, I feel like quite a success.
What I desire now is measurable success. I want to write down 10 goals and be able to look back and say, "Wow, I did all of that". We shall see where that path leads.
I guess if I had to answer this question, I would say consistent progress in a direction that makes me happy.

-Tim

[Lifeisamazing]

True success would be to have every important person (to me) say that I was someone who wanted to help other people, wanted the whole world to eat healthy and be physically active, to pursue their dreams, to continuously grow, to value relationships, nature and health much more than just things, when I'm not around. I'd like them to be able to say this by seeing my actions, not hear me saying these things.

So to generally speak, success is experiencing as many great things as possible, building a legacy, growing wonderful human beings. The worst thing would be that no one who comes to know you changes for the better.