What is Success?

Success…the elusive definition that we’ve ‘made it.’ Reached your goals, climbed the summit, achieved all the things. You must be at your perfect weight with the perfect mate with the perfect kids with the perfect bank account. I kind of feel Dr. Seuss-ish reading that. Would you like it with a mansion? Would you like it with a sports car? Would you like it at the bar? 

Everything you read or see on your social media scroll shows success as very shiny and very much at the top. The books and bloggers talk about the millions you can make. But is that real success? Is that YOUR success?

According to the quick Google search, success is the accomplishment of goals. That’s pretty simple. I make a goal to make my bed, I do it, I’m a success! Somehow that doesn’t seem very fulfilling. If I go deeper into dictionary.com one of the definitions is ‘the attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like. Ok, that sounds a bit more like it.

Wealth, position, honors or the like sounds very much like a career oriented view of success. I, like many of my peers, have chosen to spend a large amount of my adult life as the primary caretaker of my family. That leaves a large group of us wondering about our success. 

If we haven’t achieved wealth, position, honors or the like are we failures? That wonderful opposite of success. What if our spouse has achieved those things? Are we success by marriage?

I, personally, don’t feel like a failure. Do you? You shouldn’t! 

Let’s explore why we, as homemakers, spouses and part-time entrepreneurs should not feel like failures. Let’s define and own our success.