Finding success has different meanings depending on your attitude, upbringing and culture. In the US, success is often equated with wealth and material pleasures. While in a technical sense this can be a measure of success, that is not the kind of success that will be discussed here. There are simple ingredients that make for a successful life: common sense, compassion and foresight. Showing these qualities in all aspects of your life can make all the difference in a successful life full of happiness and one full of failure. Overall, a successful life is a life filled with contentment and happiness. This kind of success can be achieved by rich and poor alike.
The first thing in starting on the road to success is your attitude; how you feel about yourself and your attitude towards others. How you treat other people in your life can make a profound difference in the quality of life you will have. It makes a difference in whether you will find happiness or not and isn't that what we all want? Many people feel that acquiring success means stepping on others on your way to the top, but people who do this usually have very serious self esteem issues and eventually this kind of behavior will come back to hurt you. Success is partially dependent upon the relationships you cultivate with others. Are they genuine relationships or based on artifice? Are your relationships with associates and others outside the family circle based on respect? What about your relationships with friends and family? Are they abusive or emotionally draining relationships that take a toll on your well being? A good question to ask is are you the one that abuses and uses others? Examine what kind of interactions you have with others. If you find that your friends and others in your life are not bringing anything positive into your life, or if people shy away from you because of how you treat them you may need to examine why this is and take steps to improve either your own attitude towards people or your own self esteem. Now is the time to cultivate closeness with loved ones and positive relationships with those outside the family circle and cut off the users and abusers. How you treat others has a bearing on your health and happiness.
Let's look at compassion first. What kinds of things are important to you? Do you look for ways to be in service to others? You don't have to be wealthy to give to others. You can give of your money if you have it or your time if you don't have much in the way of material wealth. If you are wealthy, what are you doing to give back to the community and the society that helped raise you and make you successful financially? Many have spent much in philanthropic work that have helped and continue to benefit others long after the founders have passed away. If you aren't wealthy there are others ways of helping others. You can help people learn to read or help the homeless. What about finding a way to be a mentor for disadvantaged children or funding research to help find a cure for diseases that have no cure? What are you doing for others? Do you always expect things to be done for you or for things to always be given to you? Studies have shown that those who do things to help others have reported more happiness and contentment than those that live selfishly. Thus, the Biblical saying that there is more happiness in giving than there is in receving. This is true in reality, not simply a platitude.
Another way to find success in life is willingness to work hard at what you do. You'll develop a sense of pride in yourself and such industriousness can be financially rewarding. Employers like employees who work hard and this can advance your career. A good work ethic that comes along with good money sense can lead to financial success. You will not necessarily become rich because of hard work and good money management but it is possible for you to acquire some type of financial security.
Two more ingredients of life long success is using common sense when to comes to practical matters; common sense and foresight. You may think it a little thing but there are countless millions of people who do not cultivate this quality and it leads to a lot of problems for them. Common sense in money matters can make the difference between whether you are financially secure or living paycheck to paycheck. Using foresight into matters can help you avoid bad people, bad habits and bad situations. Exercising foresight or forward thinking wisdom can help you avoid costly mistakes others have made, whether it be in your relationships, your career, how you handle money or how you live your life.
So as we can see rich and poor alike can have a measure of success which can lead to happiness and contentment just like rich and poor alike can have lives filled wth chaos, resentment, terrible mistakes and unhappiness. What makes the difference is how you treat others around you and how you view success. Compassion and love for others, being industrious and using common sense in practical matters and using good judgement in all areas of your life can lead to a successful one. Success has has nothing to do with how rich you are or how many baubles you've collected, it has to do with how you handle your affairs, how much you give of yourself to benefit not only those around you but your society as well. That is true success and that is what can bring actual, long lived happiness into your life.